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EVERY JAIN SHOULD LEARN SANSKRIT
Hermann Jacobi
[A speech delivered by Dr. Hermann Jacobi, M.A., Ph. D. of Bonn (Germany) on a visit to the Eighth Acharya of the Swetambar Terapanthi sect, at Ladnun on 9th March, 1914 is reproduced here.
Editor.] Gentlemen,
I have now been three days in your town of Ladnun where I have been invited by the Jain Swetambar Terapanthi community. I have enjoyed your great hospitality and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to offer my cordial thanks to all who have come from near and distant places to meet me and who have vied with each other to make my stay in Ladnun a very pleasant and successful one. As I am told, I am the first European who has come to this town. May my visit, which has given so much satisfaction to me, I hope same to you, be an auspicious omen-a Mangala-for the friendly relations of the two races-European and Indian.
I have been much interested in seeing your town with its splendid mansions and its fort with its historical memories and I shall not forget what has made so deep an impression on my mind. But the purpose for which I came and for which I was expressly invited to see your Pūjyaji Mahārāj and to collect information about the Jain Swetambar Terapanthi sect at the foundation head-in this respect my visit was a full success.
I had some lengthy conversations with the Pujyaji Mahārāj Shree Kaluramji who has most kindly shown and explained to me important passages on the Jain Śāstras and enlightened me besides on many important points of interest, e.g, on the very strict rules of conduct to which the J.S. Terapanthi Sadhus must comply. And other gentlemen too have taken much trouble to inform me about
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