Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 2

Author(s): G C Chaudhary
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 26

PRAKRIT STUDIES: SOME PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
substandard, for the Institutions do not get good scholars. The subject is not being taught at the high school level and very few colleges have been teaching it at the undergraduate stage. So only a limited number of students offer to take up post-graduate studies and research. It is from among these that the Institutions have willy-nilly to choose their research scholars. Efforts have been made to popularise the subject at the undergraduate level but so far with little success. The fact is that up till now the subject has not been given due recognition. The scholars in the field have to assert themselves to convince the society of the enormous importance of the subject. But mind you, it is a herculean task and needs the greatest degree of patience and perseverance, for to drive home the importance of the Prakrits to a society which is generally lukewarm to all learning and particularly hostile to culture is very difficult indeed! But any way we have to take up this task for our survival. The Institutions in the field may take up the publication of popular series to bring out the bearings of the subject upon modern vernaculars, ancient Indian culture, literature and religious thoughts.
The problem before the few students who opt the subject is of employment. In the present day circumstances our education has to be job oriented. But in this field students after having obtained a first class M. A. and also research degree cannot feel secure about some sort of employment. Under the circumstances only a few, mostly helpless ones opt the subject and that also half-heartedly. So provision for employment for the students coming out with degrees in this subject has to be made. In fact the establishment of centres of advanced studies itself is an eloquent argument for working out the ways of employing the products of these Institutions. But so far little is being done. As the first step towards it the Government should introduce Prakrit as an elective subject in the examinations conducted by Public Service Commissions at the central and state levels. The Universities should be encouraged and financed to start departments for undergraduate and post-graduate teaching in Prakrit. We see that the Universities are opening departments for regional languages like maithili and Bhojapuri in their bid to include the popular dialects in their curriculum. If the fact, that for a proper understanding of these languages one has to begin with the Prakrits and the Apabhramsas is duly emphasised they cannot but see the reasonability of having a post of a teacher of Prakrit in each of the departments of modern vernaculars.
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A serious handicap in growth of Prakrit, Pali and Sanskrit studies is also their isolation and mutual exclusion as evidenced in the syllabi 2