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REVIEW
Jaini, Padmanabh S.: Collected Papers on Jaina Studies, Motilal Banarasidas Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, 2000, PP. xvi+428, Rs. 395/
In America there are only two names prominent in Jaina studies, viz., Maurice Bloomfield and the Late Professor W. Norman Brown. By the beginning of World War II, Western Jaina stdies were at a standstill. On the Continent and in the English-speaking world, Jainism attracted little sustained study. While Alsdorf, Frauwallner and Renou devoted sections of major works on Indian religions to Jainism, historians and sociologists, like Max Weber, Vincent Smith, B. Lewis, Heinrich Zimmer and Basdhamcontinued to devote some attention to Jainism.
The history of Western Jaina studies reflects the influence of scholars who looked to Jainsm for that which was other than Jainism itself, i.e. for Buddhism, Ājīvikism, historical facts, art, lingustics, etc. Pertinent questions essential to an understanding of Jainism have been ignored, questions such as the presence of fatalism and the absence of of Gandhi. Thus, in conclusion, there would seem be considerable justification for the Jaina conention that they have never received the serious attention of the Western scholar to bhakti, yoga or tantric movements in Jainism.
No attention has been paid to the comparative sociology of Jainsa and Hindus. The influence of Jainas on the general Indian political history has been ignored, as has been the Jaina claim to a share in the philosophy. From this brief specimen of Jaini's outlook, one can visualize his valuable contribution in the papers of the Sections III-VI. The research papers of Professor Padmanabh Shrivarma Jaini on Jain Studies were scattered in many learned publications. They are brought together here for the first time. They cover a wide range of topics including the Jaina view of the nature of reality, the doctrine of karma, the problem of rebirth, the idea of omniscience, the aptitude for salvation, and the assimilation of Hindu myths and rituals.
Throughout his long academic career spanning some forty years since his appointment as Lecturer in the L.D. Institute of Indolgy, Ahmedabad, in 1951, upto his current position as Professor of Buddhist studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Jaini has focussed his research on the religious, philosophical and literary achievements of the Buddhists and the Jains. In his insipring and provocative works Jaini has employed various styles of
