Jaina Studies
NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRE OF JAINA STUDIES
March 2017
Issue 12
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Centre of Jaina Studies Members
SOAS MEMBERS
Honorary President
Professor J. Clifford Wright
Professor Christine Chojnacki
(University of Lyon)
Muni Mahendra Kumar
(Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, India)
Ratnakumar Shah
(Pune)
Chair/Director of the Centre
Dr Peter Flügel
Dr Anne Clavel
(Aix en Province)
Dr James Laidlaw
(University of Cambridge)
Dr Kanubhai Sheth
(LD Institute, Ahmedabad)
Dr Crispin Branfoot
Department of the History of Art
and Archaeology
Professor John E. Cort
(Denison University)
Dr Basile Leclère
(University of Lyon)
Dr Kalpana Sheth
(Ahmedabad)
Dr Eva De Clercq
(University of Ghent)
Dr Jeffery Long
(Elizabethtown College)
Dr Kamala Canda Sogani
(Apapramśa Sāhitya Academy, Jaipur)
Dr Robert J. Del Bontà
(Independent Scholar)
Dr Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg
(University of Tübingen)
Dr Jayandra Soni
(University of Marburg)
Dr Saryu V. Doshi
(Mumbai)
Professor Adelheid Mette
(University of Munich)
Dr Luitgard Soni
(University of Marburg)
Professor Christoph Emmrich
(University of Toronto)
Gerd Mevissen
(Berliner Indologische Studien)
Dr Herman Tieken
(Institut Kern, Universiteit Leiden)
Dr Anna Aurelia Esposito
(University of Würzburg)
Professor Anne E. Monius
(Harvard Divinity School)
Professor Maruti Nandan P. Tiwari
(Banaras Hindu University)
Dr Sherry Fohr
(Converse College)
Dr Andrew More
(University of Toronto)
Dr Himal Trikha
(Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Janet Leigh Foster
(SOAS Alumna)
Catherine Morice-Singh
(Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)
Dr Tomoyuki Uno
(Chikushi Jogakuen University)
Dr Lynn Foulston
(University of Wales)
Professor Hampa P. Nagarajaiah
(University of Bangalore)
Dr Anne Vallely
(University of Ottawa)
Dr Yumi Fujimoto
(Sendai, Japan)
Professor Thomas Oberlies
(University of Göttingen)
Kenji Watanabe
(Tokyo)
Dr Sin Fujinaga
(Miyakonojō Kōsen, Japan)
Dr Andrew Ollett
(Harvard University)
Dr Kristi L. Wiley
(University of California Berkeley)
Dr Richard Fynes
(De Montfort University, Leicester)
Dr Leslie Orr
(Concordia University, Montreal)
Professor Michael Willis
(British Museum)
EXTERNAL MEMBERS
Professor Jonardon Ganeri
(Sussex University)
Dr Jean-Pierre Osier
(Paris)
Dr Juan Wu
(University of Leiden , Tsinghua University,
Beijing)
Paul Dundas
(University of Edinburgh)
Dr Jonathan Geen
(University of Western Ontario)
Dr Lisa Nadine Owen
(University of North Texas)
Dr William Johnson
(University of Cardiff )
Dr Marie-Hélène Gorisse
(University of Lille)
Professor Olle Qvarnström
(University of Lund)
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Professor Phyllis Granoff
(Yale University)
Dr Pratapaditya Pal
(Los Angeles)
John Guy
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Dr Jérôme Petit
(Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)
Professor Julia Hegewald
(University of Bonn)
Adrian Plau
(SOAS)
Dr Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber
(University of Freiburg)
Samaṇī Unnata Prajñā
(JVBI Ladnun, SOAS)
Dr Ana Bajželj
(Polonsky Academy,
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel)
Dr Kazuyoshi Hotta
(Otani University, Kyoto)
Samaṇī Kusuma Prajñā
(JVB Ladnun)
Professor Piotr Balcerowicz
(University of Warsaw)
Professor Dharmacand Jain
(Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur)
Samaṇī Dr Pratibhā Prajñā
(JVB Ladnun, SOAS)
Nicholas Barnard
(Victoria and Albert Museum)
Professor Prem Suman Jain
(Bāhubali Prākṛt Vidyāpīṭh, Śravaṇabeḷagoḷa)
Prof Shahid Rahman
(University of Lille)
Dr Rohit Barot
(University of Bristol)
Professor Rishabh Chandra Jain
(Muzaffarpur University)
Dr Josephine Reynell
(Oxford University)
Professor Jagat Ram Bhattacharyya
(Viśva-Bhāratī-University, Śāntiniketan)
Dr Sagarmal Jain
(Pracya Vidyapeeth, Shajapur)
Susan Roach
(SOAS Religions and Philosophies)
Professor Willem Bollée
(University of Heidelberg)
Professor Padmanabh S. Jaini
(UC Berkeley)
Dr Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma
(Düsseldorf )
Professor Frank van den Bossche
(University of Ghent)
Dr Yutaka Kawasaki
(University of Tokyo)
Dr Fabien Schang
(State University of Moscow)
Surendra Bothra
(Prakrit Bharati Academy Jaipur)
Dr M. Whitney Kelting
(Northeastern University Boston)
Dr Maria Schetelich
(University of Leipzig)
Professor Torkel Brekke
(University of Oslo)
Dr Laurent Keiff
(University of Lille)
Dr Shalini Sinha
(SOAS Alumna, University of Reading)
Professor Johannes Bronkhorst
(University of Lausanne)
Dr Kornelius Krümpelmann
(Münster)
Dr Atul Shah
(University Campus Sufflok)
Professor Christopher Key Chapple
(Loyola University, Los Angeles)
Dr Hawon Ku
(Seoul National University)
Dr Bindi Shah
(University of Southampton)
Professor Rachel Dwyer
South Asia Department
Dr Sean Gaffney
Department of the Study of Religions
Dr Erica Hunter
Department of the Study of Religions
Dr James Mallinson
South Asia Department
Professor Werner Menski
School of Law
Professor Francesca Orsini
South Asia Department
Dr Ulrich Pagel
Department of the Study of Religions
Dr Theodore Proferes
Department of the Study of Religions
Dr Peter D. Sharrock
Department of Art and Archaeology
Professor Gurharpal Singh
Department of the Study of Religions
Dr Renate Söhnen-Thieme
South Asia Department
Dr Naomi Appleton
(University of Edinburgh)
Professor Lawrence A. Babb
(Amherst College)
Professor Nalini Balbir
(Sorbonne Nouvelle)
2
Dr Ayako Yagi-Hohara
(Osaka University)
Dr Natalia Zheleznova
(Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy
of Sciences, Moscow)
Professor Robert Zydenbos
(University of Munich)
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Jaina Studies
NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRE OF JAINA STUDIES
Contents:
4 Letter from the Chair
Conferences and News
5
6
11
15
16
18
20
22
24
Jainism and Buddhism: Programme
Jainism and Buddhism: Abstracts
Jainism and Science: 18th Jaina Studies Workshop 2016
Gyan Sagar Science Foundation
Jaina Studies in Japan
The Constitution of a Literary Legacy and the Tradition of Patronage in Jainism
Relocating Jainism
Jains and Jainism in South India: Jaina Studies at the AAR
History and Current State of Jaina Studies: 20th Jaina Studies Workshop at SOAS
Research
25
27
28
34
36
40
45
47
49
50
51
54
Jaina-Prosopography: Monastic Lineages, Networks and Patronage
The Hindu Reception of Perso-Arabic Traditions of Knowledge and the Role of Jainism in Cultural Transmission
A Rare Letter of a Bhaṭṭāraka of Malayādri (=Malayakheḍa>Malkhed)
The Jain Prakrit Origin of the Vetāla
Manuscript Collections of the Western and Central Indian Bhaṭṭārakas
Klaus Bruhn (22.5.1928–9.5.2016)
Madhusudan Amilal Dhaky (31.7.1927–29.7.2016)
Bansidhar Bhatt (1.6.1929–4.9.2016)
Satya Ranjan Banerjee (4.6.1928–10.12.2016)
Victoria & Albert Museum Jain Art Fund
Jain Art at the Museum Rietberg
Significant Jaina Murals in the Eastern and Western Malwa Region
Publications
57 International Journal of Jaina Studies (Online)
57 Digital Resources in Jaina Studies at SOAS
Jaina Studies at the University of London
58 Postgraduate Courses in Jainism at SOAS
58 PhD/MPhil in Jainism at SOAS
59 Jaina Studies at the University of London
On the Cover
Seated Jina
Unknown artist, Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat
12th century, 1108 CE
Black stone
25 x 20 1/2 x 13in. (63.5 x 52.1 x 33cm)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Katherine
Kittredge McMillan Memorial Fund 98.211
Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art
3
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Letter from the Chair
Dear Friends,
The present volume of the Newsletter is dedicated to the appreciation of the important contributions of Professors Satya
Ranjan Banerjee, Bansidhar Bhatt, Klaus Bruhn, and Madhusudan A. Dhaky. With the sad demise in 2016 of these four
towering men of letters, Jaina Studies has suffered an irreplaceable loss of scholarship at its highest level, which will
prompt significant changes.
At the same time the field is expanding. This is reflected in the great number of conference reports in this volume, which
also offers the programme and the abstracts of the 19th Jaina Studies Workshop at SOAS, on Jainism and Buddhism,
an important subject that remains curiously under-researched despite more than 200 years of specialised academic
scholarship in both fields of study. The Centre of Buddhist Studies at SOAS has co-funded the CoJS workshop at this
occasion, and the bi-annual Pali Text Society meeting at SOAS will be held in conjunction with the workshop to enable
scholars specialising in both fields to engage in great numbers.
This Newsletter features new research findings by J.C. Wright on The Jain Prakrit Origin of the Vetāla, and by P.S. Jaini
on A Rare Letter of a Bhaṭṭāraka of Malayādri, and offers work-in-progress reports on two long-term research projects:
The Hindu Reception of Perso-Arabic Traditions of Knowledge and the Role of Jainism in Cultural Transmission by Olle
Qvarnström and Martin Gansten of the University of Lund, and Jaina-Prosopography: Monastic Lineages, Networks and
Patronage by Peter Flügel and Kornelius Krümpelmann of SOAS in association with collaborators the in the UK and
India.
Tillo Detige of the University of Ghent reports on Manuscript Collections of the Western and Central Indian Bhaṭṭārakas,
and Narmada Prasad Upadhyaya of Indore on Significant Jaina Murals in the Eastern and Western Malwa Region. The
latter’s apparently unique documentation of murals which were destroyed solely on account of renovations is indicative
of an ongoing trend of self-destruction of Jaina cultural heritage in the name of modernisation and progress. Nalini Balbir
and Johannes Beltz offer a glimpse into the Jain Art at the Museum Rietberg in Zürich, which is currently preparing an
exhibition on this subject.
Finally, it is worth pointing to the 20th ‘Jubilee’ Jaina Studies Conference at SOAS in 2018, which will be dedicated to
the theme History and Current State of Jaina Studies which invites reflections on the achievements and future prospects
of our specialised field of study in times of technological, economic, political, cultural and generational change.
Peter Flügel
Kṣetrapālajī, Dādābāṛī Amadābād (Photo: P. Flügel 26.12.2015)
4
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
The 17th Annual Jaina Lecture
Nidāna, A Word with Different Meanings
Sin Fujinaga
(University of Miyakonojō Kōsen)
Friday 17 March 2017
18.00-19.30 Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
19.30 Reception Brunei Gallery Suite
jainism and Buddhism
19th Jaina Studies Workshop at SOAS
Saturday, 18 March 2017
Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
(Right) Seated Jina. Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat, India, 12th century, 1108 CE. Black stone. 25 x 20 1/2
x 13in. 63.5 x 52.1 x 33cm). Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Katherine Kittredge. McMillan Memorial
Fund 98.211. Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art. (Left) Seated Buddha Amitabha statue, west side of
Borobudur, ca. 1863- 1866. Source=http://muse. jhu.edu/journals/manoa/ v012/12.1van_kinsber- gen_
art01.html Date=c. 1863–1866 Author=en:Isidore van Kinsbergen
15.00 Yutaka Kawasaki
Haribhadra’s Criticism of Buddhism on the
Concept of Possession (parigraha)
First Session
15.30 Tea and Coffee
9.15 Patrick Krüger
The Making of the Cult Image: New Aspects of
Interaction of Buddhism and Jainism in Ancient
Indian Art
Fourth Session
16.00
Samaṇī Kusuma Prajñā
Identity Issues of Buddhist Monks in the
Ṛṣibhāṣitāni
9.50 Charles DiSimone
Mūlasarvāstivāda Dīrghāgama Manuscript
Found at Gilgit that Deals with Jainism in the
Eyes of Buddhists
16.30
Lucas Den Boer
Jaina and Buddhist Epistemology in Umāsvāti’s
Time
10.25 Christopher Key Chapple
The Conversion of Jaina Women to the Buddhist
Path According to the Pali Canon
17.00
Brief Break
Fifth Session
11.00 Tea and Coffee
17.15
Second Session
11.30 Juan Wu
The Buddhist Salvation of Ajātaśatru and the
Jaina Non-Salvation of Kūṇika
12.05 Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber
Ekapoṣadha and Ekamaṇḍalī: Some Comparative
Notes of Jaina and Buddhist Monastic Rules
Jayandra Soni
The Digambara Vidyānandin’s Discussion with
the Buddhist on svasaṃvedana, pratyakṣa and
pramāṇa
17.45 Heleen De Jonckheere
Examination of the Buddhists in Amitagati’s
Dharmaparīkṣā: A Reflective Look on Jaina
Criticism
18.15
Final Remarks
12.40 Group Photo
13.00 Lunch: Brunei Gallery Suite
Third Session
14.00 Kazuyoshi Hotta
On Corresponding Sanskrit Words of Prakrit
Posaha: With Special Reference to Śrāvakācāra
Texts and Buddhist Texts
14.30 Yumi Fujimoto
About Vasati in Vyavahārabhāṣya I-II in
Comparison to Buddhist Texts
The conference is co-organised by Peter Flügel (CoJS), Jane Savory
and Yasmin Jayesim (SOAS Centres and Programmes Office) with
generous support from the V&A Jaina Art Fund, the SOAS Centre
of Buddhist Studies, the Jivdaya Foundation, the Faculty of Arts
& Humanities at SOAS, and private sponsors who wish to remain
anonymous.
Jain Art Fund
5
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
ABSTRACTS
Jaina and Buddhist Epistemology in Umāsvāti’s Time
Lucas den Boer, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Existing studies on the Jaina theory of knowledge
recognise that the epistemological innovations in the
Tattvārthasūtra (TS) were partly motivated by encounters
with other philosophical movements. However, the
precise circumstances that urged Umāsvāti to rework
the Jaina epistemological account are far from clear.
Although several studies have dealt with the role of the
TS in the internal development of Jaina epistemology
(e.g. Clavel, Balcerowicz), much remains to be done
concerning the investigation of the TS in the context of
its broader intellectual milieu. Given the divergent views
on the date of the TS, it is still an open question as to who
Umāsvāti’s intellectual rivals actually were. However, it
is clear that the Buddhists played an important role in
the philosophical developments in the period in which
the TS was written and, as Ohira has observed in A
Study of Tattvārthasūtra with Bhāṣya, we can assume
that Umāsvāti was well acquainted with Vasubandhu’s
Abhidharmakośa. My paper, therefore, explores whether
Buddhist theories of knowledge might have influenced
the epistemological account of the TS. For this purpose,
I will investigate references to other philosophical
movements in the epistemological parts of the TS and
its bhāṣya. Even though these texts only occasionally
refer to other schools by name, there are several implicit
references to existing debates and positions that throw
some light on the intellectual surroundings of the TS. My
analysis will show that the text is not so much concerned
with Buddhist epistemology, but rather positions itself
in relation to Nyāya thought. This outcome leads to
important questions about the role of Nyāya thought
and the actual encounters between Jaina, Buddhist and
Nyāya intellectuals in the time of the TS and its bhāṣya.
Further, by examining the way in which the bhāṣya
comments on the sūtras, my study will contribute to a
better understanding of the relation between these texts.
The Conversion of Jaina Women to the Buddhist Path
According to the Pali Canon
Christopher Key Chapple, Loyola Marymount University,
USA
The Therῑgāthā, which provides accounts of the early
Buddhist nuns, includes two stories of women who had
been members of Jain religious orders before converting
to Buddhism. Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā, who had born into a
‘financier’s’ family and trained as a Jaina nun, eventually
became a master of debate, travelling from village to
village as a religious teacher. She was convinced to
follow Buddhism by Sāriputra. Nanduttarā, who had been
born into a Brahmin family, similarly became skilled in
debate, and became a Buddhist nun after an encounter
with Moggallāna. This paper will speculate on how these
two narratives characterize, from a Buddhist perspective,
early conversations between Buddhists and Jainas.
6
Teacher Evaluations: Jains and their Doctrines as
Portrayed in (Mūla-) Sarvāstivāda Buddhist Sūtra
Literature
Charles DiSimone, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München, Germany
The Gilgit Dīrghāgama manuscript is a Sarvāstivāda/
Mūlasarvāstivāda text containing a collection of ancient
canonical Buddhist sūtras, composed in Sanskrit with
some Prakrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit elements and
written on birch bark folios in the Gilgit/Bamiyan Type
II script, also known as Proto-Śāradā. This collection had
been lost for centuries and was recently rediscovered in
what is thought to be the border area of Afghanistan and
Pakistan in the late 20th century. Like the Dhīganikāya
of the Theravāda tradition preserved in Pali and the
長阿含經 (Cháng āhán jīng) of the Dharmaguptaka
tradition preserved in Chinese, the Dīrghāgama is
rife with examples of intertextuality and its author(s)
either influenced or borrowed — or most likely, both
influenced and borrowed — from other Buddhist texts.
While the Dīrghāgama, Dhīganikāya, and 長阿含經
(Cháng āhán jīng) often parallel one another, there are
numerous differences and the three collections often
disagree on topics and content. What does the death of
Mahāvīra have to do with Śāriputra extolling Gautama?
Upon first glance the beginnings of the Prāsādika- and
Prasādanīya-sūtras, now edited and translated for the
first time, appear to introduce texts with disparate themes
and concerns, sharing similarity only in their titles.
However, these two paired sūtras from the Yuganipāta of
the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda Dīrghāgama, set near the end of
the Buddha’s career, are directly related in setting forth the
(Mūla-)Sarvāstivādin positions on what makes a teacher
and his doctrines successful. In the course of laying
out these positions, Jains, referred to as the Nigranthas,
are employed as the chief example of a group of anyatīrthikas (adherents of another faith) whose positions are
well-founded but ultimately do not meet the standards
of perfection set forth by Gautama. This paper will
examine the representations of the Jains and their views
as they were interpreted — or perhaps more accurately,
misinterpreted — by the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādins and
demonstrate how they were used as narrative foils to
further the ends of the (Mūla-) Sarvāstivāda tradition as it
was preserved in Central Asia in the 7th and 8th centuries
of the Common Era.
About Vasati in Vyavahārabhāṣya I-II in Comparison
to Buddhist Texts
Yumi Fujimoto, Japan
Vasati (a house; an abode) sometimes appears in the
Vyavahārabhāṣya as a dwelling place of Jain monks.
Although detailed descriptions are not available,
Vyavahārabhāṣya I and II has several textual parts
which show characteristics of vasati. There are also
some other words which will lead a better understanding
of it (for example, śayyātara, vihāra, abhiśayyā, and
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
abhiṣaisedhikī). This paper will refer to textual parts
of these words and try to explain characteristics of
vasati based on Vyavahārabhāṣya I and II. Rules in the
Buddhist order will be mentioned for comparison and
consideration.
Nidāna: A Word with Different Meanings
Sin Fujinaga, Miyakonojō, Miyazaki, Japan
As a part of an introductory remark, an overview of the
general meaning of the word nidāna in Buddhism and
Jainism as well as in Hindu texts is given, followed by
an explanation of how modern scholars understand it. In
general, the term designates a cause, and especially that
of rebirth. The Jainas use it in this particular context. The
main part of the lecture explores Jaina texts focusing on
the term nidāna: Āyāradasāo, Vavahāra, Tattvārthasūtra,
Samāiccakahā, Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita, and others.
Through an understanding of the uses of the word
nidāna in various fields of Jaina literature the nature of
this fundamental concept in Jainism can be grasped. In
conclusion some points for further research on this term
are discussed, the reason why Jainas use this word in
different ways, and the necessity for further studies of
Jaina texts.
On Corresponding Sanskrit Words of Prakrit Posaha:
With Special Reference to Śrāvakācāra Texts and
Buddhist Texts
Kazuyoshi Hotta, Otani University Kyoto, Japan
In Brahmanism the purification rite called upavasatha
has been practiced on the day before the Vedic ritual is
performed. For example, we can read the description of
this type of purification rite in Taittirīyasaṃhitā 1.6.7.3,
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa 1.1.1.7, etc. Jainism and Buddhism
have adapted the rite in different ways and called it
posaha or uposatha in Prakrit and Pāli. Buddhism mainly
has developed the rite as a ritual of the mendicant group.
On the other hand, Jainism mainly has developed the rite
as a practice of the layperson.
In this presentation, we will survey the corresponding
Sanskrit words of Prakrit posaha and its etymological
meaning seen in the Śrāvakācāra texts. In this field,
the study of Robert Williams (Jaina Yoga 1963) will to
be referred to initially. However, it has been over fifty
years since its publication, so it should be corrected
in some respects. Firstly, we will examine his two
opinions as follows. One is that there have come into
existence a number of false sanskritizations, such as
pauṣadha, proṣadha, poṣadha, for the Prakrit posaha.
The second point is that the word form poṣadha seems
to have attained the most general currency. On the first
point, his opinion is mostly right. But we can add that
the word form upoṣadha is seen in the printed text of
Vratodyotanaśrāvakācāra as the only exception. The
word form upoṣadha can be seen in the Buddhist texts
such as Divyāvadāna, too. As to the second point, his
assumption is not sufficient. Nevertheless, many modern
scholars (for example, P. S. Jaini, Willem Bollée, Kristi
Wiley, etc.) seem to consider that the word form poṣadha
has attained the most general currency. By investigating
approximately sixty kinds of Śrāvakācāra texts, it can
be said that the word form proṣadha has attained the
most currency. Furthermore, we can precisely point out
the tendency according to the sect. That is to say, the
Śvetāmbara use poṣadha or pauṣadha and the Digambara
use proṣadha.
The paper will also investigate the etymological
interpretations of the respective word forms seen in
Śrāvakācāra texts, especially focusing on texts not
discussed by Robert Williams. In Jainism, the original
word form upavasatha has been re-sanskritized via the
Prakrit form posaha, so they have lost sight of the preverb
upa and assumed that √puṣ etc. are the etymological
origin. Here, we examine the etymological meaning
included in the respective word forms, comparing it with
the etymological interpretation seen in Brahmanical texts
and Buddhist texts.
Ekapoṣadha and Ekamaṇḍalī: Some Comparative
Notes of Jaina and Buddhist Monastic Rules
Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber, Freiburg, Germany
Both the post-vedic religions of Jainism and Buddhism
show analogies in many aspects. In a book published
in 2016 (Saṃbhoga. The Affiliation with a Religious
Order in Early Jainism and Buddhism), I investigated
the essential term saṃbhoga, which is largely used
with the same meaning of ‘alms district’ by Jainas and
Buddhists. The present paper aims to analyse some
further similarities concerning the monastic rules of
both religions, with focus on two technical terms: ekapoṣadha of the Buddhists and eka-maṇḍalī of the Jainas.
The Buddhist uposatha/poṣadha ceremony had
been presumably carried out by the historical Buddha
himself, along with the fortnightly recitation of the
old part of the Pātimokkha. The earliest reference is
attested in three versions of Aśoka´s so-called SchismEdict found in Kauśāmbī, Sāñci and Sārnāth. According
to some early Buddhist sources such as the Aṅguttara
Nikāya, the Vinayapiṭaka of the Mahāsāṃghika and the
Mūlasarvāstivāda school, it is evident that the Buddhists
actually adopted the poṣadha ritual from ‘ascetics of
different faith’ (anyatīrthikaparivrājaka), among those
the nigaṇṭhūposatha is explicitly referred to.
Comparing the above mentioned Buddhist texts with
some early sources of the Jaina canon (Viyāhapannati,
Uvāsagadasāo, etc.), my paper intends to discuss the
usage of certain technical terms in both monastic systems
and their relationship to each other. For instance, both
religions differentiate between the pauṣadha/poṣadha
ceremony for the members of a religious order and those
for the laity.
The Jaina boundary eka-maṇḍalī (‘in one district
only’) ensures the common supplies (saṃbhoga) for the
clerics as well as their ritual immaculateness, because
all monks or nuns who are staying within this maṇḍalī
7
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
have to confess their possible offences before taking
the meal jointly. Analogically, the Buddhist Vinaya
prescribes (saṃgho etehi nimittehi sīmaṃ sammannati
samānasaṃvāsaṃ ekuposathaṃ) that only one uposatha/
poṣadha ceremony is allowed to be held in one residence
of monks in order to guarantee the purity of the saṃgha.
The district of a Buddhist order is defined by a sīmā
(boundary) which corresponds to the Jaina term maṇḍalī.
Examination of the Buddhists in Amitagati's
Dharmaparīkṣā: A Reflective Look on Jaina Criticism
Heleen De Jonckheere, Ghent University
The Dharmaparīkṣā by the Digambara monk Amitagati,
written at the beginning of the eleventh century, is a
satirical text that mainly criticizes the Brahmanic tradition
through narrative. Although this work emphasizes the
faults and flaws of the Purāṇic tradition, some space is
also reserved for the Buddhists. I will discuss what is said
about the Buddhists in this text and why it is important to
mention them. I will show that by opposing the Buddhists,
Amitagati puts them within the philosophically relevant
world for the Digambara Jain community, and that
by characterizing them he is actually also revealing
something about his own community.
Haribhadrasūri on Property Ownership by Buddhist
Mendicants
Yutaka Kawasaki, The University of Tokyo
Past studies have revealed that the eminent Śvetāmbara
monk Haribhadrasūri (8th century) had a good
knowledge about various kinds of Buddhist philosophical
and epistemological concepts, and that he inveighed
against the theory of momentariness, the concept of
consciousness-only (vijñaptimātratā), Dharmakīrti’s
epistemology, and so on. Besides, it is also well known
that Haribhadrasūri was a bitter critic of the daily
practices of Buddhist mendicants in their monastic life.
We can find one such criticism in his treatise written
in Prakrit, the Dhammasaṅgahaṇi. According to the
Dhammasaṅgahaṇi verse 986, an opponent is said to
assert that Buddhist mendicants can possess various
types of property in villages because their owning of
such property leads to the growth of the ‘three jewels
(buddha, dharma, and sangha)’, that is, Buddhism.
After this assertion, Haribhadrasūri starts disputing
with his opponent over the legitimacy of the property
ownership by Buddhist mendicants untill verse 1015.
This paper, after briefly touching upon the concept of
‘non-possession’ (aparigraha) in Jainism, will explore
how Haribhadrasūri criticizes his opponent’s claims and
how his opponent argues back against Haribhadrasūri
in order to legitimate property ownership by Buddhist
mendicants. Through a careful reading of this dispute,
which probably reflects some historical facts, this paper
will reveal the different understandings on the concept of
‘possession’ (parigraha) between Jainism and Buddhism.
It will also shed new light on the actual conditions of the
8
management of the Buddhist monastery in the medieval
period.
The Making of the Cult Image: New Aspects of
Interaction of Buddhism and Jainism in Ancient
Indian Art
Patrick Krüger, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
It is well-known that both the Jain religion and Buddhism
arose from an ascetic movement, whose members
refused any worldly possessions. For this reason it
seems remarkable, especially from Jainism, that an
image tradition originated, which was probably adopted
by the Buddhists a little later. Previous research has
explained the creation of early images of the Jina and
the Buddha from the art historical perspective, where
images are mostly perceived as depictions based on a
literary tradition. From a media perspective, however,
making objects means to visualize religious themes and
beliefs and in a sense the image changed and formed
the religion. The paper will present new perspectives of
the origin and meaning of the early Jina image and the
religious culture of the Jains in Mathura.
Identity Issues of Buddhist Monks in the Ṛṣibhāṣitāni
Samaṇī Kusuma Prajñā, Jaina Vishva Bharati Institute
Ladnun, India
The Ṛṣibhāṣitāni is the only Indian ancient work
which contains the traditional and practiced knowledge
contributed by the three renowned religious streams
viz. Jaina, Buddha and Vedic. This text, researched by
Schubring, Pandit Dalsukhbhai Malavaniya, Sagarmal
Jaina and other scholars, will be debated from different
perspectives. Serving as an excellent example of liberal
thinking and religious tolerance, the text raises more
questions than answers, for its status in the Jaina canon
is disputed, its author is unknown and furthermore, the
saints in the text reveal disputed identity. This paper will
deal with this identity issue of Buddhist monks.
This work contains the preaching of all the four types
of saints: Royal saint (rājarṣi), Divine saint (brahmarṣi),
Godly saint (devarṣi) and Supreme saint (paramarṣi). It
has been considered that twelve of the saints belong to
the Nirgrantha (Jaina) tradition, five from the Buddhist
tradition, and seventeen from the Vedic tradition.
Different factors create dispute and question this
probability. Furthermore, there are other saints explained
here, but the tradition they belong to not recognized. In
the paper I focus on the monks found in the Vrajikaputra
(chapter 2), Mahākaśyapa (chapter 9), Mātaṅga (chapter
26), Sāciputra (chapter 38), and Indranāga (chapter
41), as these saints seem to be ‘related with’ Buddhist
tradition.
The reasoning behind delegating them as merely
‘related to’ Buddhism rather than making a factual claim
of being Buddhist saints will be investigated. My research
will undertake a philological and philosophical analysis
of the text itself, investigate the commentary of the
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
unknown author and revisit the research of scholars such
as Schubring and others. For example, Schubring, and
Sagarmal Jain consider the saint Sāiputta to be Buddhist,
yet each of them employs a different rationale behind the
argument in their pursuit of philological investigation.
Debate gets intensified when different scholars designate
Sāiputta as Buddhist, but identify Sāiputta as different
Buddhist saints.
Just to analyse Sāiputta, the unknown commentator
analyses the word ‘bhikṣu’ used with Sāiputta as tagged
with Buddhist tradition, while Schubring translates
Sāiputta in Sanskrit as ‘Svātiputra’. Sagarmal Jaina has
acknowledged Sāiputra as the main disciple of Buddha
by translating Sāiputta as ‘Sāriputra’, but the Sanskrit
meaning of Sāiputta should be ‘Sāciputra’, which is one
of the names of Lord Buddha. The name of Lord Buddha’s
mother was Māyā. According to Sanskrit dictionaries
Sāci is the synonym of Māyā. Therefore, Sāciputra (the
son of Sāci) like Māyāsuta (the son of Māyā) should also
have been used for Lord Buddha. Another main reason
behind considering Sāiputta as Buddha is that out of the
mentioned 44 saints, Lord Buddha’s name is not among
them (if Sāiputta is excluded). It seems inappropriate to
include the names of disciples, ignoring the name of the
guru. Therefore, it can be said that Sāiputta must have
been used for Lord Buddha. Overall the disputed journey
of investigating the original tradition will be presented
in the paper. Difficulties to discern the original tradition
become intensified for the discourse of these saints who
do not fit to one specific tradition. Such and other issues
will be dealt exploring why a few are ‘related to’ Buddhist
tradition rather than being Buddhist.
This identity issue of Buddhist monks will
quintessentially also unveil the identity problem of saints
in general in the text, the question of conversion and the
question of the notion of ‘standardised philosophy’ in
three traditions.
The Digambara Vidyānandin’s Discussion with the
Buddhist on Svasaṃvedana, Pratyakṣa and Pramāṇa
Jayandra Soni, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Two of the terms in the title are from Vidyānandin’s
Tattvārtha-śloka-vārttika (Tśv, 1, 6, 11), which is his
commentary on Umāsvāti’s Tattvārtha-sūtra (TS).
Sūtra 6 of the TS is: pramāṇa-nayair adhigamaḥ
(‘Knowledge — of the seven categories — is attained
by the instruments of knowledge and the standpoints’).
Vidyānandin’s commentary on this sūtra 6 entails a total
of 56 ślokas, with his own prose vārttika on each of them
in varying lengths. Tśv 1, 6, 1–8 deal with particulars
and universals, for which he uses the synonymous pairs
aṃśa/aṃśin and avayava/avayavin. That he is attacking
the Buddhist position regarding this age old theme in
Indian philosophy, is evident also in that he quotes
Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇa-vārttika. By the time he comes
to his Tśv 1, 6, 6, he establishes that an object as a whole
is open to perception and that the Buddhist also accepts
perception as a valid means of knowledge, but does not
accept the perception of an object as a whole.
From Tśv 1, 6, 11 onwards Vidyānandin continues with
the same theme, elaborating his attack of the Buddhist
view even further, in terms of svasaṃvedana, pratyakṣa
and pramāṇa (self-awareness, perception and valid
means of knowledge). The presentation will attempt to
deal with these concepts in order to see how Vidyānandin
vindicates the Jaina position vi-à-vis the Buddhist one.
This presentation will continue from my previous study
of Vidyānandin’s Tśv 1, 6, 1–10.
The Buddhist Salvation of Ajātaśatru and the Jaina
Non-Salvation of Kūṇika
Juan Wu, Leiden University / Tsinghua University
Buddhism and Jainism, as cousin traditions, not only
show remarkable similarities in beliefs and customs,
but also share a good number of common narrative
characters. One example of such a shared character is
King Ajātaśatru/Kūṇika of Magadha, who is widely
featured in both Buddhist and Jaina literature. In
comparing Buddhist and Jaina sources, previous studies
have mostly focused on the parallelism between Buddhist
and Śvetāmbara Jaina descriptions of how Ajātaśatru/
Kūṇika imprisons his own father and causes his death.
Rather less attention has been devoted to exploring how
or why Buddhist and Jaina narrative traditions of this
character differ.
This paper will demonstrate a stark contrast between
Buddhist and Jaina attitudes toward the salvation of
Ajātaśatru/Kūṇika. While a number of Buddhist texts
predict that Ajātaśatru, after his next birth in hell, will be
released from there and finally become a pratyekabuddha
or a buddha, the Jainas texts only state that Kūṇika
was killed by a cave deity and fell into hell, without
saying when he will be released from hell, or whether
he will ultimately attain liberation. Moreover, while the
Buddhists offered various solutions to Ajātaśatru’s sinful
condition, the Jainas proposed no remedy for Kūṇika’s
bad karma. The Buddhist prophecies of Ajātaśatru’s
liberation indicate that some Buddhists in ancient
India were particularly concerned with the salvation of
morally corrupted or karmically trapped ones such as the
patricide Ajātaśatru. The Jaina silence on Kūṇika’s future
destiny after his life in hell indicates that the Jainas in
general had little interest in bringing him to liberation,
and deemed him to be one who is never able to overcome
his mithyātva (false view) due to his strong passions.
Buddhism and Jainism, as cousin traditions, not only
show remarkable similarities in beliefs and customs,
but also share a good number of common narrative
characters. A significant part of those shared characters is
formed by royals who are said to have lived at the time of
the Buddha and Mahāvīra. Among them, King Pradyota
of Avanti is well known in both Buddhist and Jaina
sources. Both Buddhists and Jainas speak of the cruelty
of Pradyota, dubbing him Caṇḍa-pradyota (Pradyota,
the fierce). Both tell stories about his romantic affairs
and political career. Both narrate the marriage between
9
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Pradyota’s daughter Vāsavadattā and King Udāyaṇa
of Vatsa. Yet the two religions associate Pradyota with
the Buddha/Mahāvīra in different ways: In the Buddhist
tradition he was brought to faith by the Buddha’s disciple
Mahākātyāyana, while in the Jaina tradition there seems
to be no story about his conversion and he is mainly
connected with a sacred image of Mahāvīra.
This paper provides a comparative survey of Buddhist
and Jaina stories of Pradyota, with particular attention to
the accounts in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Kṣudrakavastu and
the Āvaśyaka commentaries. Its purpose is not to offer an
alternative political history of early India, but to discover
the shared imaginaire of Buddhists and Jainas about the
ancient world in which the Buddha and Mahāvīra lived,
and to explore the different ways in which Buddhist
and Jaina storytellers used royal narrative characters to
express their visions of the relationship between courtly
and renunciatory cultures.
Dr Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber
Kartäuserstr. 138,
79102 Freiburg, Germany
Visiting Prof. of Buddhist Studies, Shandong-Univ.
27 Rd. Shanda Nanlu, Jinan, 250100 China
haiyan.hu.von.hinueber@orient.uni-freiburg.de
Dr Kazuyoshi Hotta
606-8071
41-12 Shugakuin-Hazamacho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-shi
Kyoto-fu
Japan
kazuyoshi_hotta@res.otani.ac.jp
Heleen de Jonckeere
Department of Languages and Cultures
Blandijnberg 2
9000, Gent, Belgium
heleen.dejonckheere@ugent.be
Jainism and Buddhism
Speakers and Discussants
Lucas Den Boer
Leiden Institute for Area Studies, SAS India en Tibet
Witte Singel-complex
Witte Singel 25/M. de Vrieshof 4
Room number 1.04b
2311 BZ Leiden
l.den.boer@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Charles DiSimone
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
80539 München
disimone@alumni.stanford.edu
Dr Yutaka Kawasaki
Assistant Professor of Prakrit
Department of Indian Languages and Literature
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology
The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 113-8654
Japan
kawasaki@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Dr Patrick Felix Krüger
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Center for Religious Studies
Universitätsstraße 90a, Raum 2.05
44789 Bochum
Tel.: +49 (0)234 32 21958
patrick.krueger@rub.de
Professor Christopher Key Chapple
Department of Theological Studies
Loyola Marymount University
One LMU Drive, University Hall 1840
Los Angeles, CA 90045-8400
cchapple@lmu.edu
Samaṇī Dr Kusuma Prajñā
Professor in the Department of
Prācya Vidyā Evaṃ Bhāsā Vibhāga
Jain Vishva Bharati Institute
Ladnun 341306
Rajasthan (Nagaur District)
India
omtulsi1@gmail.com
Dr Yumi Fujimoto
982-0003
5-14-54-101, Kooriyama, Taihakuku
Sendai
Miyagi, Japan
fu727@hotmail.co.jp
Dr Jayandra Soni
Associate of the University of Innsbruck
Poltenweg 4
A-6080 Innsbruck
Austria
soni@staff.uni-marburg.de
Dr Sin Fujinaga
c/o Miyakonojō Kōsen,
Miyakonojō, Miyazaki,
Japan
fujinaga@cc.miyakonojo-nct.ac.jp
Dr Juan Wu
Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.06b
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS)
2311 BZ Leiden
wujuan728@gmail.com
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CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Jainism and Science: 18th Jaina Studies Workshop, SOAS 18-19 March 2016
Samaṇī Unnataprajñā
_____________________________________________________________________
he Workshop was organized by the CoJS in
collaboration with the Gyansagar Foundation,
based in New Delhi.1 Professor Anupam Jain from
the Government Degree College in Indore opened the
proceedings with the 16th Annual Jaina Lecture at SOAS
on Newly Discovered Jaina Mathematical Manuscripts.
He started with a reference from Mahāvīrācārya’s
Gaṇitasāra Saṃgraha 1/16: ‘Whatever there is in all three
worlds, comprising moving and non-moving beings, all
that indeed cannot exist as apart from mathematics’.
The renowned historian of Indian mathematics B.B.
Datta first used the term ‘Jaina School of Mathematics’
in his publication of 1929. Jaina ācāryas wrote texts of
a high mathematical content, many of which are still
unknown to the academic world. A. Jain provided an
extensive survey conducted during thirty-five years of
researching in numerous Jaina libraries to discover texts
dedicated to mathematics (including astronomy). He
gave an overview of the published non-canonical Jaina
mathematical literature and unpublished manuscripts as
well.
Jain discussed the Triśatikā manuscript, available
in the British Library, also published by S.D. Dwivedi
in 1899 and by Sudyumna Acharya in 2004 with the
Sumedhā commentary.
Jain also reviewed the Jyotirjñānavidhi of
Śrīdharācārya, which is crucial for finding the auspicious
time through astrological analysis. He discussed the
contrasts to the Hindu astrological method of choosing
the lunar day. Further he discussed the Ṣaṭatriṃśikā
or Ṣaṭatriṃśatikā of Mādhavacandra Traividya (11th
century CE). With regard to the Uttarachattīsī Ṭīkā
of Gaṇitasāra, Jain presented the logical rationale for
providing the formulae x/0=x which is otherwise denied
in mathematics. He also discussed other manuscripts:
Lokānuyoga by Jinasena I (783 CE), Trailokyadīpaka
of Pt. Vāmadeva (14th c. CE), Trilokadarpaṇa of Kavi
Khadagasena (1656 CE), and Gaṇitasāra of Hemarāja
(17th century CE). Finally, he emphasized the necessity
of gathering copies of such manuscripts from the
bhaṇḍāras, digitizing and make them accessible
for further research, thus bringing to light the Jaina
mathematical contributions.
The papers of the next day seemed to validate
Mahāvīrācārya’s declaration that mathematics is ‘an
intrinsic part of Jaina reality’. The diverse presentations
ranged from fields such as metaphysics, human science
(physiognomy), astronomy, numbers, architecture,
arithmetic, geometry, time, etc.
In the first panel, ‘Evidence and Proof in Jaina
Science & Philosophy’, Muni Mahendra Kumar from
the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, presenting via Skype,
discussed The Enigma of the Cosmogony, with reference
to his recent book of the same title. According to the Jain
T
Glen Radcliffe
1 The conference presentations are available at
https://youtu.be/6HQgndezOGg
Ratnakumar Shah (Pune)
canonical texts, the universe (the cosmos) is beginningless with respect to time. In modern scientific cosmogony,
several hypotheses articulating similar alternatives to the
‘big bang theory” are proposed by scientist such as J.V
Narlikar, Saurya Das, Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondy and
Thomas Gold, who proposed the theory of the “steady
state universe’. Muniśrī discussed Jaina cosmogony as an
eternal interplay of intangible and tangible realities. He
then discussed the mode of interaction, the causal factors
of the disparity.
Following this, Marie-Hélène Gorisse (SOAS & Ghent
University, Belgium) considering the role of Scientific
Knowledge in Jainism, specifically discussed induction.
She analysed commentaries of the Tattvārthasūtra
by Siddhasena and Akalaṅka. Articulating the
characteristics of scientific knowledge as propositional
knowledge, she discussed problems in terms of Bertrand
Russell’s refutation of induction, David Hume’s theory
of ‘universality of nature being requisite for faith’ etc.,
and Karl Popper’s attempt to redefine science ‘as a
method for solving problems’ based on the process of
falsification. Hence, metaphysical and religious claims
being non-falsifiable truths, will be tagged as ‘nonscientific’. Gorisse then compared Jainist propositions
to Kantian apriori conditions, which are non-falsifiable
as well. Comparing Dignāga’s three conditions as a
proof of induction with Jainas ‘invariable concomitance’
(anyathā-anupapatti), being only possible condition for
induction, she argued that the postulation of a necessary
relation between the universal and the particular in
Jainism, allows them to survive with one condition. Yet,
she concluded that though it seems a solution for Jaina
philosophy, it only shifts the problem to a higher level,
raising a question whether anyathā-anupapatti is the
only unconditional condition for induction.
Ana Bajželj (Postdoctoral Polonsky Academy, The
Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel) then focused on the
development of concepts as an attempt to scientize reality.
Her paper, Upakāra in Akalaṅka's Tattvārthavārtika,
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CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
12
Peter Flügel
discussed a passage of the Tattvārthasūtra (TS5.1722) detailing the various kinds of assistance (upakāra)
provided by the six basic substances. Comparing
Pūjyapāda’s Sarvārthasiddhi with the Rājavārtika of
Akalaṅka, she traced the influences of the former on the
later. Akalaṅka emphasizes that the assisting functions
of substances are unique to themselves and can never
lose their inherent capacities even in the absence of
the recipients. Bajželj argued that the Jaina doctrine of
causality developed as part of a ‘scientific’ endeavor to
systematically and rationally explain the nature of reality.
Presenting the influential conceptual development of
upakāra she emphasized the metaphysical implications
rather than mere empirical significance of assistance.
The second panel dwelled on the ‘Jaina Theories
of Time’. On behalf of Rājmal Jain (Kadi Sarva
Vishvavidyalay, Ahmedabad), who was unable to attend
in person, Anupam Jain presented the paper, Space
and Time: In the Perspectives of Jainism and Science.
It was an attempt to attribute scientific significance to
several Jaina concepts such as the values of six Jaina
eons (kāla cakra), yojana (a traditional measure),
distance and zodiacal extensions of sun, moon, stars,
etc. The paper attempted to define vyavahāra-kāla
(empirical time) as the function and energy of niścayakāla (transcendental time), and further dealt with
critical issues such as relationship between the concepts
numerable (saṃkhyāta), innumerable (asaṃkhyāta), and
infinite (ananta), and the significance of the number
84. His discussion of the equivalence of the space unit
(pradeśa) with the time unit (samaya) was based on the
Tiloyapannatti of Yativṛṣabha (2nd century CE). Overall,
it was a mathematical presentation of the conceptual
philosophical ideas, advocating for more research.
Samani Unnata Pragya (SOAS, Jain Vishva Bharat
Institute, Ladnun) then argued that Jaina concepts are not
always grounded in mathematics, and at times are beyond
measurements. In her paper Jain Theory of Timelessness
she investigated the theory of timelessness (śūnya-kāla)
based on Jaina metaphysics and epistemology. Time
as per Anuogadārāiṃ is both existential reality and a
measurement. The unit of time (samaya) therefore has
a dual role of being transcendental and an empirical unit
of measurable time. She researched dispersed textual
references of timelessness related to both aspects of time.
She illustrated with examples three kinds of timelessness
analysed from different aspects drawn from Bhagavaī,
Pannavaṇā, Pañcāstikāya, etc. Firstly, ‘immeasurabletimelessness’ originates due to epistemological issues
as observed in aspriśada gati (a journey in space
without touching the intermediate space units) where
the intermediate point of the journey is not cognizable.
Secondly, ‘beyond time measure’ are the intrinsic
modes (artha paryāya) which exist in the now with
the dynamism of change, a metaphysical state. Finally,
‘existence without time’ in supra-cosmos, is relatively
acknowledged, for nothing but space exists outside
cosmos. Hence, she argued, though zero time is absent in
the Jaina lists of time values, the Jaina conceptualization
Cathérine Morice-Singh (Paris)
of the intrinsic nature of reality and cognition by default
cannot go without the presupposition of the notion of
timelessness.
The next paper by Cathérine Morice-Singh (Université
Sorbonne Nouvelle–Paris 3) was about The Treatment of
Series in the Gaṇitasārasaṃgraha of Mahāvīrācārya
and its Connections to Jaina Cosmology. The
Gaṇitasārasaṃgraha of Mahāvīrācārya (9th century CE)
teaches the addition and subtraction of series, presenting
arithmetic and geometric progression. His arithmetic
progression is an amplified version of what Āryabhaṭa
and Brahmagupta had already discussed under the
designation śreḍhī vyavahāra. Morice-Singh presented
various mathematical terms, such as stride (gaccha),
step (pada), value of the accumulation for the common
difference (uttara-dhana), value of all (sarva-dhana),
value of the accumulation for the first term (ādi-dhana),
etc., and convenient methods for difficult problems.
Then, relating this to Jaina cosmography, she presented
examples of arithmetic progressions for the mathematical
description of loka, hell, etc. and the formulae to
calculate the holes, widths, the heights of the holes, etc.,
of hell. Using formulas from geometric progression, she
explored calculations of different cosmological areas,
such as the innumerable islands and oceans found in
madhya loka, and further the differently arranged hellish
holes, etc. She concluded that the computation of series
receives a special place in the GSS because they play a
great role in Jaina cosmographical calculations.
The third panel on ‘Jaina Mathematicians’ started with
Ratnakumar Shah’s (Pune) paper on Jinabhadragaṇi
Kṣamāśramaṇa: Computational Wizard of Sixth Century
C.E., which rendered light on the mathematical work
of the great Jaina saint-scholar, a close contemporary
of Āryabhaṭa I. In Shah’s view he employed almost
modern methods of arithmetical processes, such as using
a decimal system with zero having place value, showing
great proficiency in dealing with big numbers addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, extraction of square
roots, operations with fractions, mensuration of triangle,
trapezium, circle, and use of rule of three, etc. Although
in his works Bṛhatkṣetrasamāsa, Bṛhatsangrahaṇi, and
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Viśeṣāvaśyakabhāṣya numbers are expressed in words
and no symbols for numerals appear therein. He argued
that in the processes described, numbers uttered digitwise and calculations involving very large numbers
leave not an iota of doubt that some conception of zero
was existing by then. Shah also rendered examples from
JB’s work such as square roots of large numbers, formula
for the area between two parallel chords of a circle, area
and volume of the Lavaṇa sea, etc. He argued that it
corresponded to the pre-calculus method of indivisibles
adopted by Cavalieri and Roberval in the 17th c. CE.
Even elements of the modern modular arithmetic could
be traced in his works. Jinabhadra’s work presented
not only the earliest use of zero place value in decimal
system and symbols for 10 digits (0 to 9), his precision
and ease with such big numbers rightly marks him a
computational wizard of his era.
Since the announced next presenter Alessandra
Petrocchi (University of Cambridge, UK) was unable
to attend and present her paper on Siṃhatilakasūri’s
Mathematical Commentary (13th c. CE) on the
Gaṇitatilaka, we had a presentation by L. C. Jain
(Government Engineering College, Jabalpur) on
Non-Absolutism (Anekānta) and Modern Physics, a
paper which discussed anekānta and its posited close
association with physics.
The last paper of this panel by Johannes Bronkhorst
(University of Lausanne, Switzerland) Jaina versus
Brahmanical Mathematicians, took a different approach
of analysing the critique of Brahmanical mathematicians
of their heterodox tradition. He primarily demonstrated
that Bhāskara I’s Āryabhaṭīya-bhāṣya (7th century CE) on
geometrical theorems survived with errors as they lacked
proof of it. Bronkhorst then presented a rare passage in the
Āryabhaṭīya-bhāṣya which reveals an implicit criticism
presented in Pāli language presumably addressed to the
Jainas, as Buddhists were silent in this field. His research
revealed that though the formulae of π rendered by the
Jainas, which was critiqued by Bhāskara, have an error,
Bhāskara’s refutation is flawed as well. Debate arose in
the context of the calculation of the length of the arch of
a circle. Bhāskara argued that, if the π value of the Jainist
is used, the calculation does not yield correct results.
But Bronkhorst’s research showed that the prediction of
Bhāskara finding fault in the π value was illogical as even
with his π value the problem persisted, which meant that
the error was not mainly about the π value of the Jaina but
the formulae. Concluding, Bronkhorst suggested that the
geometry practiced at the time of Bhāskara I in different
schools concentrated on their own traditional teachings.
If these traditional teachings were incorrect, they were
preserved for lack of criticism. Criticism of different
schools confronting each other, were unfortunately too
infrequent, and did not allow a general atmosphere of
criticism to become part of the traditions.2
The first paper of the last session ‘When Science
Meets Fiction’, Architectural Science in Jain Poetry:
Descriptions of Kumārapāla’s Temples was delivered
by Basile Leclère, (Université de Lyon 3, France). The
Caulukya king Kumārapāla (r. 1143-73), influenced and
converted by the Śvetāmbara monk Hemacandra, ordered
Jaina sanctuaries to be erected throughout his dominion.
He was duly praised by Hemacandra in the concluding
section of the Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣa-caritra. Many other
Jaina writers from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
extolled Kumārapāla as a great builder. Basile Leclère
researched these temples assisted by contemporary
texts such as Mahārājāparājayā, etc. Discussing the
difficulties of terminology, he cautioned that terms used in
2 Published in the IJJS (Online) Vol. 12, No. 1 (2016) 1-10.
Glen Radcliffe
13
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
the chosen guidebook might be anachronistic to the work
being compared. He analysed texts such as Mahāvirā’s
composition Kumāra Vihāra Praśasti, Kumāra Vihāra
Śatakā by Rāmacandra, and Somaprabhā’s poem
Kumārapāla-pratibodha, and presented examples
to prove their expertise and precision in the use of
architectural terms. He concluded that these texts instead
of merely detailing the idols, extol the technical expertise
of architecture, and hence must be taken more seriously
for analysing Jaina sacred architecture.
In her paper When Science Meets Fiction: On Technical
Passages in Jain Medieval Novels, Christine Chojnacki
(University Lyon) presented further research on a novel
subject: physiognomy, a study of a person’s facial or at
times bodily features or expressions, especially when
regarded as indicative of character or ethnic origin. The
earliest research in this field was by K. G Zysk on Hindu
materials. Chojnacki’s research in Jainism identified four
types of relevant sources: the Garga Saṃhitā (1 CE) an
astrological text, Varamihirā’s Vṛhad Saṃhitā (6 CE), one
of the earliest extant systematically presented texts, a
compendium titled Samudrikā Śāstra by King Dolavarāja
and his son Jagadeva, and the Purāṇa texts. First, she
discussed problems of tracing the historical development
of Jaina physiognomy, beginning with the dating of
texts such as the Purāṇas A great deal of variation in
the description of body parts, numerological details of
symbols on the body, etc., exists in the sources. She then
compared three long narratives: Udyotanā’s Valayamalā
(Pkt.) (1779 CE), Siddhārṣī’s Upamiti Bhāvaprapañca
Kathā (Skt.) (905 CE), and Vijayasiṃṃhasūrī’s
Bhuvanasundari (Pkt.) (918 CE). Finally, relating to Jaina
religion, she discussed the great men (śalākhā puruṣa),
descriptions of the deity Padmāvatī, etc. She concluded
that Jaina monks had produced treatises on physiognomy
from the 6th to 11th centuries CE and that Udyotanā and
Siddhārṣī’s had access to sources prior to Varahamihira.
Peter Flügel withdrew his announced paper on Jainism
and Science: History and Ontology of the ‘Soul’ to
accommodate in the program Hampasandra Nagarajaiah
to present his research on Pacchakkhāna Leading to
Sallehaṇā, which seemed to be relevant at this time when
the Jaina community is facing a related court case against
it in India. In his paper Nagarajaiah discussed in detail
ESSAY & DISSERTATION PRIZES IN JAINA STUDIES
Presented by: Prof J.C. Wright, President, Centre of Jaina
Studies, SOAS. Helen Poulter, SOAS, UG Jain Essay Prize
Winner. Photo: Glen Radcliffe
the definitions, methods and antiquity of the practice.
The conference concluded with a round table
discussion, which was chaired by Shamil Chandaria
(London). The other panelists were Johannes Bronkhorst,
Kalyan Gangwal (Pune), Anupam Jain, Laxmi Chandra
Jain (Government Engineering College, Jabalpur),
Mukul Shah (London), Ratnakumar Shah, Sanjeev
Sogani (Gyan Sagar Science Foundation, New Delhi),
and Samani Unnata Pragya.
While there was general consensus about Jaina
mathematics, physics, atomic theory, etc. being
compatible with scientific theories, there were some
words of caution that the terms and concepts used by
both need to be intensively investigated before making
claims of similarity. The panel concluded with Prof.
Bronkhorst’s pragmatic and prudent statement that the
comparison between science and religion might not lead
to any new truth.
Samaṇī Unnataprajñā is a PhD student at SOAS.
Peter Flügel
Roundtable on the question ‘Is Jaina philosophy compatible with the modern sciences?’
14
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Gyan Sagar Science Foundation
With the blessing of Param Pujya Sarakoddharak Acharya Shri 108 Gyan Sagar Maharaj Ji
and his vision and the Gyan Sagar Science Foundation (GSF) came into being in September
2009 with the primary object of bridging Science and Society and to propagate ancient
scientific knowledge for the wellbeing of mankind. The foundation aims to provide a
national forum where different disciplines of Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology,
Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture etc.), Society and Spirituality are converged and views
are exchanged for sustaining life and harmonious living. The Foundation seeks to cultivate
and promote value-based education of today’s youth in proper prospective and a harmonious application of Science
with Religion.
The work of this Foundation is dedicated to Sarakoddharak Acharya Shri 108 Gyan Sagar Maharaj Ji who has
tirelessly worked to propagate the eternal principles of SATYA (Truth) and AHIMSA (Non-violence) and to promote the
culture of vegetarianism. He has been instrumental in holding seminars/conferences of students, teachers, doctors,
engineers, chartered accountants, bank officers, bureaucrats, legislators, lawyers, etc. to instill moral values amongst
people from all walks of life and work collectively for establishing peace in the world and progress for betterment
of the country.
Activities of the Foundation include conferences (Bangalore, 29-31 January 2010; Mumbai, 7-8 January 2012;
New Delhi, 8-9 February 2014) and an annual journal: Journal of Gyan Sagar Science Foundation. The first volume
was published in April 2013 (available online: www.gyansagarsciencefoundation.in). This issue covered all abstracts
presented during two conferences and some full-length papers. The papers were published after a peer review process.
To appreciate and recognize contributions of individual scientists to society, the Foundation has instituted an
award. The award consists of a cash prize of Rs. 200,000 in the beginning, a medal and a citation. The first award
was bestowed on Prof. Parasmal Ji Agrawal Jain for his paper “Doer, Deeds, Nimitta and Upadana in the context of
Modern Science and Spriritual Science.” It was presented at the 3rd conference in New Delhi.
GSF is also a regular contributor to the annual Jaina Studies conference at SOAS, and has committed to five years
of sponsorship of Jaina Studies, Newsletter of the Centre of Jaina Studies at SOAS.
For more information please contact: gyansagarsciencefoundation@gmail.com
Please visit our website: www.gyansagarsciencefoundation.in
Jaina Studies Certificate
For information please contact: jainastudies@soas.ac.uk
Ingrid Schoon
Jain courses are open to members of the public who can participate
as 'occasional' or 'certificate' students. The SOAS certificate in
Jaina Studies is a one-year program recognised by the University
of London. It can be taken in one year, or part-time over two
or three years. The certificate comprises four courses, including
Jainism at the undergraduate level. Students can combine courses
according to their individual interests.
The certificate is of particular value for individuals with an
interest in Jainism who are not yet in the university system, who
do not have previous university qualification, or who do not have
the time to pursue a regular university degree. It provides an
opportunity to study Jainism at an academic level and is flexible
to meet diverse personal needs and interests.
15
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Jaina Studies in Japan: Conference Reports
Masahiro Ueda
_____________________________________________________________________
The 67th Annual Conference of the Japanese
Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies (JAIBS)
Masahiro Ueda
The 67th Annual Conference of the Japanese Association
of Indian and Buddhist Studies (JAIBS) was held at the
University of Tokyo, on 3-4 September 2016. Although
the papers on Jaina Studies were not assembled in a single
session, seven presentations in total dealt with Jainism.
In The Present and Future of Jaina Studies—and Its
Significance, Akihiko Akamatsu (Kyoto University)
spoke on the research history of Jaina Studies. He first
introduced ten points that Alsdorf raised in his lectures
at the Collège de France in 1965. Akamatsu observed
that since then the history of Jaina Studies has advanced
in response to these issues. He examined the efforts
that have been made to address each problem thus far
and concluded that recent scholarship in the field has
responded to these issues.
In Problems on the 59th Verse of the Āptamīmāṃsā,
Kiyokuni Shiga (Kyoto Sangyō University) examined
the historical relationship of the Āptamīmāṃsā (ĀM) of
Samantabhadra and Kumārila’s Ślokavārttika (ŚV). He
focused on verses ĀM 59 and ŚV 23 which have been
quoted in Buddhist texts as arguments to be criticised in
the context of the question of the definition of existence.
His analysis concluded that the ontology of Kumārira is
likely to be based on Samantabhadra.
In On the Interpretation of the Aparigraha-Vrata
of Jainism, Yutaka Kawasaki (Tokyo University)
compared Śvetāmbara and Digambara interpretations
of non-possession (aparigraha). He found that both are
common in terms of their interpretation of aparigraha
as ‘persistence in mind’ but differ with regard to the
items that one is allowed to possess, especially clothes.
He explored the argument in the Dharmasaṃgrahaṇi
of Haribhadra, Digambara criticism and Haribhadra’s
counterarguments.
Hiroaki Korematsu (Tōyō University)
The present author, Masahiro Ueda (Kyoto University)
presented a Study on the Exegetical Literature of
Śvetāmbara Jainas. Based on Malayagiri’s commentary
on the Vyavahārabhāṣya, using five handwritten
manuscripts, he provided examples of the procedure for
editing the unpublished Vyavahāracūrṇi. He analysed
the relationship between Malayagiri’s Ṭīkā and the
Cūrṇi, and pointed out that the former is likely to have
been composed as an alternative commentary of the
Vyavahārabhāṣya.
Kazuyoshi Hotta (Ōtani University) read a paper
entitled Seven Vyasanas of Lay People: On the
Śrāvakācāra Literature. In addition to the previous study
in Williams’ Jaina Yoga, he provided new sources and
examined seven vyasanas in the Śrāvakācāra literature.
He pointed out that the seven vyasanas appear only in the
relatively new works, especially by Digambaras, and also
in non-Jaina literature. He concluded that the concept of
seven vyasanas is not unique to Jainism, since it has been
popular in India in general. At a certain stage, the general
idea entered in the Śrāvakācāra literature.
In Early Rāso Literature Unrelated to the Biographies
Masahiro Ueda
Participants of the 31st Conference of the Society for Jaina Studies at Ōtani University
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CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
31st Conference of the Society for Jaina Studies
On 24 September the 31st Conference of the Society for
Jaina Studies was held at Ōtani University, Kyoto. Three
papers were read at this conference.
In Non-idolatry of Digambara Tāraṇ Panth, Hiroaki
Korematsu (Tōyō University) reported on the history and
current state of the Tāraṇa school of Digambara Jainas.
According to Korematsu, the Tāraṇa school is known
as non-idolatrous, but the doctrine itself is attributed to
authors from the early 20th century. Korematsu pointed
out that in the works by Tāraṇ Svāmī, the founder of the
school, there is no passage denying idolatry.
Nobuyuki Sugioka (Kindai University) presented a
paper entitled Six Sentient Beings in Jainism — Sattha
and Daṇḍa. He pointed out that the definitions of the
terms sattha (śastra in Sanskrit) and daṇḍa are different
in Jainism and Buddhism. He examined the meaning of
these words in the early Jaina canonal texts, especially
the Āyāraṅga, the Sūyagadaṅga and the Dasaveyāliya.
He analysed the classification of six sentient beings
found in these texts and concluded that the cause of the
difference between Jainism and Buddhism is their means
of classifying living beings.
Michihiko Yajima (Komazawa University) spoke on
Establishing Jaina Maṇḍala and Thīrtha: Report on the
Mahāpañcakaryāṇaka Ritual. He reported on fieldwork
he conducted on the rituals held in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh)
and Bhopal (M.P.) in January and December 2010. These
rituals were performed by Terāpanth Digambaras and
aimed to reproduce the five auspicious events in the
lives of the Tīrthaṅkaras. He explained the procedure
Masahiro Ueda
of Jaina Saints, Tomoyuki Yamahata (Hokkaido
University of Science) looked at three stages in the
history of Prakrit literature and discussed the relationship
between them. The first period considered was the
literature of Apabhraṃśa during the 9th to 12th centuries,
preceding the era of the early Rāso literature. In this
period, the tales of Jain saints were created. He pointed
out that they display a characteristic form called saṃdhibandha. Also in the following period of the early Rāso
literature, works on Jaina saints and doctrines were
created successively. They have a form called rāsābandha, which is influenced by saṃdhi-bandha. At a
later period, tales of war not related to Jainism appeared
in Rāso literature, but they are not related to saṃdhibandha.
In Identification with All Things in Jainism, Kenji
Watanabe (Taishō University) focused on the expression
sarva-bhūta-ātma-bhūta, which is commonly found
in the Dasaveyāliya-sutta and the Bhagavadgītā. He
pointed out that this bahuvrīhi compound implies that all
things and the self are identical, and introduced Hajime
Nakamura’s view that early Jaina thought had a close
relationship to Vedānta and the Upaniṣaḍs. Watanabe
quoted phrases in the Āyāraṅga, the Uttarajjhāyā and the
Sūyagaḍaṅga as further examples of this identification.
Michihiko Yajima explaining his photo exhibition at Ōtani University
of the ritual, and provided illustrations from the photo
exhibition that was held at the conference.
100th Annual Lecture of the Association of Philosophy,
Kyoto
On 3rd November 2016 the 100th Annual Public Lecture
of the Association of Philosophy, Kyoto, was held at the
Kyoto University Clock Tower Centennial Hall. The
lecture was open not only to members, but also to the
general public. The speaker was Akihiko Akamatsu, a
professor in the Faculty of Letters of Kyoto University.
The lecture was entitled Problems between Tolerance
and Relativism in Jainism. After providing an overview
of Jainism, Akamatsu pointed out that Jainas practice
tolerance towards other schools, which can be seen in
the concept of neutrality (madhyastha). Based on the
dialogues in the Hīrasaubhāgya Mahākāvya and the
Vijayapraśasti Mahākāvya, he demonstrated how Jainas
adopted neutral or tolerant attitudes towards Islam as
its powers expanded. Furthermore, he showed three
doctrines that form the relativism of the Jainas, namely
anekāntavāda, syādvāda and nayavāda. Introducing the
conventional opinion that the principles embodied within
ahiṃsā were transformed by Jaina thinkers into respect
for other schools (tolerance) at the intellectual level, he
concluded that it might be necessary to be tolerant in
order to practice such a relativistic attitude as Mahāvīra
preached on the ontology and the theory of karman.
The presentations on Jaina Studies held in Japan this
year covered a broad range of topics. The circle of
Japan-based researchers is expanding more and more
in conjunction with related fields such as Buddhism,
modern India, linguistics, etc.
Masahiro Ueda is a PhD candidate at Kyoto University.
His dissertation centres on the study of the exegetical
literature of the Śvetāmbara Jainas. He is currently an
adjunct lecturer at Kyoto University, and is presently
editing the unpublished text of the Cūrṇi commentary on
the Vyavahārabhāṣya.
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CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
The Constitution of a Literary Legacy and the Tradition of Patronage in Jainism
Natalia Zheleznova
_____________________________________________________________________
he international workshop The Constitution of a
Literary Legacy and the Tradition of Patronage in
Jainism, organized by Christine Chojnacki and Basile
Leclère, and hosted by Jean Moulin (Université Jean
Moulin Lyon 3, Institute of Philosophical Research), was
held on 14-17 September 2016.
The first day of the workshop was opened by H.
Nagarajaiah (Bangalore University), who spoke on the
patronage of a cultural legacy in Karnataka, dealing
with the extensive literature on Kannaḍa language
from the 7th to the 13th centuries. He drew attention
to the poets Ravikīrti, Śrīvijaya, Pampa, Ponna and
Ranna, who made a great impact on Kannaḍa poetry
and whose patrons were kings of different dynasties in
Karnataka. H. Nagarajaiah emphasized the role of royal
patronage during the Cāḷukya and Rāṣṭrakūṭa Dynasties
in supporting the Jain community, which helped the
Jainas to preserve their palm-leaf manuscripts in libraries
(śrutabhaṇḍāra) and to build many temples (basadi).
Peter Flügel (SOAS) in Information on Patronage of
Jaina Literature in Manuscript Catalogues explored some
of the earliest meta-data on patron-client relationships
in standard manuscript catalogues, focussing on
the indices of Albrecht Weber’s (1886, 1888, 1891)
Verzeichniss der Sanskṛit- und Prâkṛit-Handschriften
der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Zweiter Band;
Johannes Klatt’s (1892/2016) Jaina-Onomasticon;
Hiralal R. Kapadia’s (1954) Descriptive Catalogue of
the Government Collection of Manuscripts Deposited
at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute XVII, V;
and the New Catalogus Catalogorum of the University
of Madras (1949ff.). Flügel compared the data models
of recent Indological data-bases such as PANDIT and the
Koba Library Catalogue. On the basis of a preliminary
statistical analysis of data on patronage in Klatt (2016),
he argued that comparing the different methodological
approaches of the great cataloguers of Indian literature
may help to generate a set of categories for the computersupported exploration of sociology of Jaina knowledge
production. He then presented a new data model that he
had used in his own research on Sthānakavāsins.
This was followed by Rajyashree H. Nagarajaiah
(Bangalore), who focused on life stories of two noble ladies
from Karnataka—Ravideviyakka and Malliyakka— as
examples of female patronage in preserving palm-leaf
manuscripts of the circa 2nd-century Digambara scripture
on karma theory Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgāma (The Scripture in Six
Parts).
The paper by Piotr Balcerowicz (University of
Warsaw) was entitled Royal Patronage of Jainism
between the Fourth-Second Centuries BCE. Balcerowicz
questioned the story about Candragupta Maurya, who is
believed to have been converted to Jainism by Bhadrabāhu
and, following a famine in Ujjayinī, accompanied
the latter to Śravaṇabeḷagoḷa where he performed the
sallekhanā rite of a ritual suicide nature. According to
T
18
Balcerowicz, there is no evidence that would allow one
to establish any link between the founder of the Mauryan
Dynasty with Jainism, and with Bhadrabāhu in particular.
Analysing the literary sources as well as paleographic
and archaeological data, Balcerowicz came to the
conclusion that the first ruler of note in South Asia who
patronized Jainism was King Khāravela, as is indicated
in the Hāthīgumphā inscription.
Next, Johannes Bronkhorst (University of Lausanne)
spoke on No Literature Without Patronage: Weak Royal
Patronage and its Effect on the Constitution of the Jaina
Canon under the Kuṣāṇas. Bronkhorst showed that five
absences characterize the Jainas under the Kuṣāṇas:
absence of royal patronage, absence of monasteries,
absence of Sanskrit, increasing absence of stūpa worship
and absence of an established canon. He argued that they
are organically related.
Annette Schmiedchen (Humboldt University of
Berlin) in Religious Patronage in Favour of Jain Literary
Traditions: The Epigraphic Evidence argued that most
of the donative inscriptions for the benefit of the Jaina
community describe either the erection of a sanctuary
(vasati) or an endowment to maintain such an institution;
but even complex grants hardly ever mention the copying
of religious manuscripts amongst the purposes they were
to serve. Schmiedchen pointed out that in contrast to
Buddhist grants, which were usually bestowed upon
local monastic orders, but not upon individuals, Jaina
donations were meant to sponsor the religious activities
of particular groups and certain spiritual milieus.
The first day of the workshop was concluded by two
papers on textual transmission in Jaina philosophy. The
first was presented by Natalia Zheleznova (Institute
of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences)
on Akalaṅka Bhaṭṭa’s Rājavārttika: An Example of
Textual Transmission in the Digambara Philosophical
Commentary Tradition. The second paper was read by
Himal Trikha (Vienne Academy of Sciences), On the
History of the “Jaina Logicians” and the Transmission
of Their Works. Both speakers gave some examples
that illustrated the ways of transmissions of different
epistemological and philosophical concepts and doctrine
in the case of Akalaṅka Bhaṭṭa’s Rājavārttika and
Vidyānandin’s texts respectively.
The second day of the workshop was opened by
Arathi H. Nagarajaiah (Bangalore) who focussed on the
life story of Attimabbe (10th -11th cc.) as an example
of a noble Jaina patroness and benefactor. Christine
Chojnacki (University of Lyon 3) in Monks, Kings and
Laymen: Transmission of Literary Works in Medieval
Gujarat (11th-14th centuries) explored the typical
contents of the final eulogy (praśasti) of the literary
works of this period, showing how these help to explain
why the Jains were particularly active in the preservation
of the manuscripts and why they succeeded in doing
so. Eva De Clercq (Ghent University) in Promoting,
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Creating and Completing Apabhramsa Treasures:
Bhaṭṭāraka Yaśaḥkīrti discussed Apabhraṃśa literary
compositions, which were ordered by wealthy patrons
from the lay community. De Clercq drew a detailed
picture of the activities of Bhaṭṭāraka Yaśaḥkīrti (15th
century, Gwalior), in order to establish his position
in and significance for the history of the Jaina literary
heritage, especially in Apabhraṃśa literature. De
Clercq argued that aside from arranging the patronage
for several of the layman Raïdhū’s more than thirty
compositions and writings of Apabhraṃśa epic poetry
by himself, the bhaṭṭāraka famously completed the
work Riṭṭhaṇemicariu of one of the greatest Apabhraṃśa
poets, Svayambhūdeva, which had been left unfinished
by the author.
In Behind the Curtain: Who Commissioned Medieval
Jain Plays? Basile Leclère (Université Jean Moulin Lyon
3) investigated why and how Jaina writers, despite the
austere Jaina doctrine prohibiting entertainments such as
theatre, dance, music, etc., eventually adopted the genre
of theatre in the 12th-14th centuries. During this period,
no less than twenty-two plays were written by Jaina poets
in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and perhaps even more if we
surmise that a part of this production slipped into oblivion
thereafter. Leclère pointed out that in medieval times it
had become quite common for a dramatist to mention the
name of his patron and the special occasion of this work
in the prologue of the drama. This could be helpful in
order to understand why this sudden and radical shift in
the literary habits of Jaina writers took place.
The paper by Olle Qvarnstrӧm (Lund University) was
Patronage and the Construction of a Jaina Self-Image:
The Nābhinandanajinoddhāraprabandha of Kakkasūri.
Qvarnstrӧm analysed how Kakkasūri, in an attempt
to create a self-image of his own tradition in response
to the polity of the Delhi Sultanate, tried to construe
crucial elements for establishing a Jaina identity of the
Upakeśagaccha and to find modus vivendi for the peaceful
relations with his co-believers as well as with those who
had different political and religious views.
In Historical Literature at a Turning Point in North
India’s Literary Culture: The Unconventional Poetry of
Nayacandra Sūri, Its Influences and Aftermath, Hens
Sanders (Ghent University) spoke on the Śvetāmbara
monk Nayacandra Sūri, who composed two remarkable
works of literature: the Hammīramahākāvya, a Sanskrit
epic poem about the Cāhamāna King Hammīra of
Ranthambhor (r. 1282-1301) and the Rambhāmañjarī, a
humorous love-play in the rare saṭṭaka genre composed
in a mixture of Prakrit and Sanskrit, about King
Jayacandra of Kannauj (1173-1193). Sanders argued
that Nayacandra’s poetry could be taken as a sign of the
rise of vernacular languages which was considered a
step forward for the development of both Jaina and nonJaina historical narratives. He discussed the influences of
prabandhas and early rāso texts on Nayacandra’s work,
and others thereafter, such as Padmanābha’s old-Gujarati
epic Kanhaḍade-prabandha (1455), and the Jaina author
Amṛtakalaśa’s old-Gujarati Hammīraprabandha (1518).
The last paper, Literary Circles and Manuscript
Culture of the Early Modern Bhaṭṭāraka Saṅghas of West
India, was presented by Tillo Detige (Ghent University).
Detige’s presentation provided a broad overview of the
literary production, manuscript culture, and patronage
of the bhaṭṭāraka saṅgha litterateurs of West India,
particularly on the basis of manuscript eulogies (praśasti)
and colophons (puṣpikā). He also examined some specific
bhaṭṭārakīya manuscript collections (bhaṇḍāras), and
the texts, genres, and languages represented in them,
as valuable sources for the writing of ‘localized literary
histories’, and provided a statistical breakdown of
patronage to particular types of Digambara ascetics on
the basis of the manuscript catalogues of North India.
The workshop ended with two roundtables that
focussed on the conclusions of the papers read, and on
a discussion about the future Jaina research in Europe.
Natalia Zheleznova is a Senior Research Fellow in
the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of
Sciences, Moscow. She specializes in Jaina Digambara
Philosophy. She is author of three books and a number of
articles on different aspects of Jainism.
Mahāvīra, Mahāvīrālaya Kobātīrtha 2015
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CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Relocating Jainism
Tine Vekemans and Anja Pogacnik
_________________________________________________________________________________
I
n Helsinki, on the last day of a very stimulating
conference of the European Association for the
Study of Religion,1 scholars from around the world
gathered to discuss the latest developments in the study
of contemporary Jainism. With the aim of furthering
the discussion on Jainism as a lived religion within the
arena of religious studies, Tine Vekemans (University
of Ghent) and Anja Pogacnik (University of Edinburgh)
organised a bipartite panel titled Relocating Jainism,
which incorporated a range of papers on Jain communities
around the world into a narrative of migration, translation,
and alteration.
The first session subtitled Exploring New Frontiers,
Settling New Places focused on cases in which Jainism
broke new ground and settled in new places, while
the second session, Adapting, Re-appropriating, and
Transmitting Tradition, continued with an examination
of how Jainism subsequently evolved and how Jain
customs and culture were negotiated and transmitted in
new places of settlement.
The first three presenters took us on a journey
across the world—from Mahārāṣṭra via Switzerland
to digital derasars in the USA. The paper that set the
panel in motion was ‘Locating Jainism: Building a
Jain Maharashtra’ presented by M. Whitney Kelting
(Northeastern University, USA), who focused on a case
study of a newly built Jain temple in Teḷagaon, just
outside Puṇe, Mahārāṣṭra. Approaching the templebuilding process in reverse (building the temple last,
after all the supporting structures such as the upāśraya,
bhojanśālā, and dharamśālā have already been built)
and establishing new patterns of patronage through
encouraging small donations instead of seeking rich
patronage, the Teḷagaon Śrī Pārśva Prajñālay Tīrtha
complex opened its doors for worship in 2006. As there
are no places linked to auspicious events in the lives of
the Jinas (kalyāṇak bhumī) in Mahārāṣṭra, Mahārāṣṭrī
Jains have taken to other narratives to construct a ‘Jain
Mahārāṣṭra’. Instead of focussing on the historical
significance of Teḷagaon, they proudly proclaim the
recent transformation of wasteland and jungle into a
Jain space worthy to be considered a tīrtha, a place of
pilgrimage. By claiming the status of a tīrtha even before
its completion, Śrī Pārśva Prajñālay Tīrtha challenged
the conventional criteria and sought to establish visibility
and identity for the Mahārāṣṭrī Jain community.
The next presenter, Mirjam Iseli (University of
Berne, Switzerland) transported the discussion to a
diasporic setting with her paper ‘Jains in Switzerland:
Establishment of a Supra-Denominational Community’,
which focussed on a group of twenty to twenty-five
Jain families, who have settled in Switzerland. Given
the smallness of the Swiss Jain community, there is no
established Jain centre in Switzerland and people mostly
meet in homes or rented halls for cultural events and
1 28 June-1 July 2016, Helsinki, Finland
20
Hemacandrācārya, Pārśvanātha Daherāsar Pāṭaṇ (Photo: Ingrid Schoon
28.12.2015)
bigger religious festivals (particularly for Mahāvīra
Jayantī and Dīvāḷī). Due to the low numbers of Swiss
Jains and the absence of religious experts ensuring a
transfer of traditional knowledge, sectarian identifications
have become marginalised in favour of accentuated
commonalities between different branches of Jainism.
Through participation in religious activities organised on
a non-sectarian basis, a supra-denominational Jainism is
being constructed in Switzerland.
Then our journey of exploration took us to the digital
dimension. Tine Vekemans (Ghent University, Belgium)
presented a paper titled ‘Digital Derasars: Online Ritual
in the Jain Diaspora’, which presented a case of online
or computer mediated rituals and their use among Jains
living in the USA. Computer mediated rituals such as live
darśan and online pūjā are perhaps the most intensely
virtual of online activities offered to Jains. Whilst most
Jains living in diaspora find accessing downloadable Jain
literature, lectures, and music acceptable, many approve
only conditionally of the performance of rituals through
the screen of a personal computer. They see online
darśan and pūjā to be acceptable for the young, the
elderly, and those living far away; in essence those who
have difficulty accessing local temples. Otherwise, they
express dissatisfaction with the absence of sensory and
social elements in computer mediated rituals. However,
these online tools are regularly used in alternative ways,
primarily in educating children about Jain rituals and
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
inviting relatives and friends living abroad to participate
in their religious celebrations through online livestreams.
The second session of the day, Adapting, Reappropriating, and Transmitting Tradition, focussed
on particular social institutions originating in India,
but finding a different life in Jain communities abroad,
that is, children’s religious education, youth’s religious
engagement, and food symbolism. Shivani Bothra
(Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
opened the second session with ‘Jain Pāṭhśālās of North
America: Changes and Continuities in Contemporary
Times’, in which she examined the development of
modern methods and curricula used in the Jain pāṭhśālās
(religious classes for children) of North America. Early
initiatives took the form of lectures by pundits, usually
invited from India, and magazines such as the Jaina
Studies Circular. These materials were then used in
the first pāṭhśālās, but failed to capture the attention
of children and youngsters. In 1995 the umbrella
organization Jain Pāṭhśālās of North America (JPNA)
was formed to provide an official curriculum and teaching
materials. Bothra argued that the subsequent shifts in
content and teaching methods can inform us on important
contemporary trends developing within Jainism, both in
India and abroad. Today, North American pāṭhśālās are
typically interactive and child-centred, and the content
of the classes is meant to be free from sectarian bias, as
opposed to the traditional sectarian pāṭhśālās of India.
Starting from questions relating to the place of religion
and religious organizations in the lives of Jain immigrants,
Bindi Shah (University of Southampton, UK) compared
the aims and role of Jain youth organisations oriented
towards second-generation Jains in Britain (Young Jains
UK (YJUK)) and North America (Young Jains of America
(YJA)). Although both organizations profile themselves
as places for discussion of Jainism-related topics and their
relevance in contemporary society, as well as spaces for
networking and social support, Shah argued that whereas
in North America, YJA consistently focuses on the
ethical aspects of Jainism and on community building,
YJUK has experienced a shift in focus from the ethical
to more philosophical and doctrinal matters. Moreover,
the community-building function that is clearly present
in YJA is less strong in YJUK, as the organizational
landscape in the UK is more diverse and caste and
language association already perform that function.
The last paper ‘The Role of Food in Jain Communities
in India and Abroad’ by Anja Pogacnik (University
of Edinburgh, UK), related how the importance of
food consumption is subtly different amongst Jains in
the UK and in India. Based on fieldwork in Jamnagar
(Gujarat) and Leicester (England) her paper explored
and contrasted the role of food in both settings. Pogacnik
found that while in Gujarat the Jain food proscriptions
are followed relatively rigidly and work primarily to
demarcate Jains from the majority Hindu population, the
Jains living in England do not follow the dietary rules as
strictly. Although English Jains are still overwhelmingly
vegetarian, following the Jain dietary proscriptions
functions more as an indicator of an individuals’ religiosity
and hints at one’s status in the Jain community. Pogacnik
further suggested that knowledge and practice of Jain
dietary proscriptions function as Bourdieu’s embodied
cultural capital and can in some contexts translate into
symbolic capital, bringing more observant Jains prestige
and authority within their religious communities.
Each of the papers presented during our panel
Relocating Jainism was followed by a stimulating
discussion spanning everything from online dating sites
and temple building in London to influences of sectarian
differences in pratikramaṇa and the role of grandparents
in knowledge transmission. This panel was rather
unique in that it brought together researchers working
on contemporary aspects of Jainism. We hope to see this
network expand in the future, so that panels such as the
one organised in Helsinki, will become a staple in all
major conferences on religious studies.
Anja Pogacnik is a PhD student at the University of
Edinburgh examining how the practice and interpretation
of religion change through the process of migration and
life in diaspora. Her research centres around the Jain
communities in Leicester (England) and Jamnagar
(Gujarat), where she explores intergenerational change
in religious practice and the influence of the wider society
on religious communities.
Tine Vekemans is a doctoral researcher at the Department
of Languages and Cultures of Ghent University in
Belgium, currently involved with the FWO-funded project
Online religion in a transnational context: representing
and practicing Jainism in diasporic communities. Her
research interests include contemporary Jainism, the
Jain diaspora, and the interactions of religion, migration,
and digital media.
Yakṣī, Pārśvanātha Daherāsar Pāṭaṇ (Photo: Ingrid Schoon 28.12.2015)
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CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Jains and Jainism in South India: Jaina Studies at the AAR
Gregory Clines and Steven M. Vose
_________________________________________________________________________________
O
n 20 November 2016, the Jaina Studies Group met
at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of
Religion (AAR) in San Antonio, Texas to explore “Jains
and Jainism in South India.” The panel evaluated literary
and historical depictions of relations between Jains and
other religious traditions in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
from both Jain and non-Jain perspectives. The papers
were pre-circulated for the first time, facilitating a
workshop-style session.
Sarah Pierce Taylor (Oberlin College) and Shubha
Shanthamurthy (SOAS) spoke on Theorizing a
South Asian Religious Commons: Jains and Śaivas
in the Medieval Deccan. They explored the fact that
behind evidence of animosity between Jain and Śaiva
communities in the Kannada-speaking regions of premodern India, lies each group’s intimate knowledge
of the other. Contact between the two groups, they
argued, cannot be reduced to modern, liberal notions of
religious pluralism or an uncritical narrative of constant
animosity. In attempting to understand the nature of this
contact, Taylor and Shanthamurthy introduced the idea
of a religious commons, “an improvised assemblage
of practices and ideas legible and appropriable by all
traditions, but not owned by any of them.” Taylor and
Shanthamurthy argued that this religious commons was
a space in which Jains and Śaivas, “mutually shaped…
ways of thinking, forms of expression, and even ritual
and spatial lives.” In support of this idea the authors
provided epigraphical examples that gestured towards
each groups’ knowledge and use of a common stock of
religious vocabulary and ritual idioms.
Gil Ben-Herut’s (University of South Florida)
paper, Arguing with Vaiṣṇavas, Annihilating Jains:
Two Religious Others in Early Kannada Śivabhakti
Hagiographies, examined the processes by which early
Vīraśaiva hagiographical literature creates “others”
out of Vaiṣṇava Brahmins and Jains. Ben-Herut looked
specifically at the Śivaśaraṇara Ragaḷegaḷu (Poems
in the Ragaḷe Meter For Śiva’s Saints), a thirteenthcentury collection of hagiographical stories written by
Hampeya Harihara in Hampi. He argued that Harihara
deemed Vaiṣṇava Brahmins an “opponent other,” a group
with whom Śiva bhaktas shared enough theological or
cultural common ground to negotiate and argue with
them. By contrast, Jains were depicted as “wholly other,”
completely separate, alien, and therefore irredeemable.
The wholly other can only be converted or destroyed as
seen in narratives of violent massacres and forced temple
conversions. Ben-Herut argued that the process of creating
Jains as the Śaivas’ “wholly other” conceals the on-theground intimacy between the two groups. Nowhere is
this better seen than in the domestic sphere; Harihara
simultaneously rails against Jain-Śaiva intermarriage—
indeed, some of the most violent encounters between
the two groups occur in intermarried homes—while also
22
Tīrthaṅkara Munisuvrata decorated with a bodice (aṅgī), Dādābāṛī
Amadābād (Photo: P. Flügel 26.12.2015)
presenting it as commonplace. Ben-Herut concluded by
arguing that Harihara’s goal in portraying the Jains as the
wholly other served to create a distinctly Śaiva collective
self-identity.
Christoph Emmrich’s (University of Toronto) Being
North, Facing North, and Enacting the Other, or, How
Tamil and How Jain Do Jains Who Speak Tamil Think
They Are? explored how modern Jains in Tamil Nadu
think of themselves both as Jain and as Tamil. Emmrich
began with a meditation on the topic of the panel itself:
devoting a panel to Jains and Jainism in the South
signifies its marginality in the field of Jain studies as
a whole. Indeed, Emmrich pointed out how unlikely
the topic “Jains and Jainism in the North” would be at
the AAR. Emmrich further argued that the moniker of
“Tamil Jain” itself implies relationships with languages
other than Tamil and geographic regions other than Tamil
Nadu, and that these relationships need to be explored
in order to understand the limits of the moniker itself.
For example, Emmrich pointed to the phenomenon of
Digambara nuns (mātājīs) increasingly traveling to
Tamil Nadu from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
(the “north”). These nuns, popular among Tamil Jains,
are learning Tamil and establishing relationships with
Jain communities, thereby expanding the traditional
landscape of Tamil Jainism.
Finally, Anne Monius’ (Harvard University) paper,
‘Plucking My Head Like a Bilberry Bush’: The Fate
of Jains as Religious Others in Tamil Śaiva Literature,
examined the function of the “poetic ‘I’” in the works of
the seventh-century Tamil saint Appar (Father). Monius
questioned readings of Appar’s poetry that depict him as
a former Jain monk rescued from a futile life of severe
asceticism and filth by Śiva’s grace. Instead of being
strictly autobiographical, Monius argued that Appar’s
first-person account of his former life as a Jain monk
marks one pole of a spectrum of possible human folly,
a pole that is oftentimes contrasted with its opposite,
a similar first-person account of Appar as ensnared in
worldly pleasures, including a wife and family. The
“poetic ‘I,’” then, when referring to Appar’s past life as
a Jain monk, serves as a marker for the problem of living
a life too dedicated to asceticism. On the other end of
the spectrum, the “poetic ‘I’” that references Appar as
entangled in worldly pleasures and human relationships
serves as a marker for a life led too indulgently. It is a
life dedicated to devotion to Śiva that emerges in Appar’s
poetry as a middle ground and the most prosperous and
fulfilling life to lead.
Lisa Owen (University of North Texas) delivered
the response to the papers, adding to the discussion
an examination of the visual record of the complex
interactions between Jain and non-Jain communities
in South India. Owen pointed out the importance of
place in helping to shape interactions between religious
communities, citing examples of seemingly civil
relationships between Jains and Brahminical groups at
courtly institutions and on sacred mountains. In another
particularly enlightening example, Owen discussed a
donor portrait from one of the Jain caves at Ellora. The
carving featured a Jina in the center, surrounded by
monks and nuns. Portrayed near the congregation of
ascetics was the lay donor, whose name, Śivadevapati,
was given in a Sanskrit inscription below the carving.
In addition to the Jain Studies Group panel, there were
several other papers on Jain topics presented at the AAR
on separate panels.
Clines (Harvard) presented the paper, Plagiarized
Purāṇas? Jain Textual Composition in Early Modernity,
examining the phenomenon of purāṇic narrative copying
among Digambara Jains in pre-modern north India.
Building on previous arguments made by Padmanabh
Jaini about plagiarism among early-modern Digambara
Jains, Clines investigated the fifteenth-century
Padmapurāṇa of Brahma Jinadāsa, and pointed out that
it was in large part copied from Raviṣeṇa’s seventhcentury work of the same name. Clines argued that the
act of textual copying functioned as an accepted form
of sectarian argumentation, especially concerning issues
of lineage and institutional authority, rather than textual
theft.
In the Tantric Studies Group panel, Ellen Gough
(Emory University) presented Worshipping the Sisters
of Śiva in a Jain Tantric Diagram. Gough discussed the
use of cloth diagrams (paṭa) such as the Vardhamānavidyā among Śvetāmbara monks in secret rituals. She
focused on four goddesses in particular—Jaya, Vijaya,
Aparājitā, and Jayantā—who have been described as
“Sisters of Tamburu,” a form of Śiva first mentioned in a
seventh-century tantra. Gough traced depictions of these
sisters in Buddhist and Jain literature, and includesd
observations from her own fieldwork in Gujarat in 2013.
She argued that, in addition to being liberation-seeking
ascetics, Jain monks took on the role of protectors of the
lay community, facilitated by their ability to command
these powerful tantric vidyās.
Finally, Claire Maes (University of Texas at Austin)
presented To Be or Not to Be Naked? An Examination
of Identity Negotiation in Early Jainism, a comparative
analysis of nakedness as an ascetic requirement in early
Śvetāmbara and Digambara texts. Maes also compared
Jain and Buddhist sources on the practice of ascetic
nudity. She argued that the practice of nakedness was
a “signifying practice around which boundaries could
be drawn and identities negotiated.” Maes brought Jain
perspectives on asceticism to bear in the development
of new theorizations of the premodern religious identity
formation, showing how mapping synchronic and
diachronic discussions of a single practice can help
scholars to trace the shifting meanings of premodern
religious identities among South Asian religious
communities.
Papers on Jainism at the 45th Annual
Conference on South Asia
I
n late October, four papers on Jainism were presented
in the panel, “Rethinking the State of Jain Communities
Under ‘Muslim Rule’,” at the 45th Annual Conference
on South Asia, hosted by the University of Wisconsin’s
Center for South Asia. The theme of the conference
was “decay,” which each scholar addressed as a key
problematic in previous depictions of Jainism in this
period.
Steven M. Vose (Florida International University)
started the proceedings with A Less Fated Kali Yuga: The
Politics of Time in a Fourteenth-Century Jain Pilgrimage
Text. Vose examined the trope of the Kali era in the
Vividhatīrthakalpa, an enigmatic collection of narratives
by the Kharatara Gaccha monk Jinaprabhasūri. Often
used in studies of the medieval sacred geography in South
Asia, Vose argued that the recurrence of the theme of the
degeneracy of time, and Jains’ efforts to overcome recent
calamities, ties the otherwise disparate chapters together
and gives the text a coherent rhetorical project. He argued
that recent vicissitudes, while the result of time’s decay,
can be overcome through the efforts of devoted Jains
and lead to a new era of prosperity for the community.
According to Vose, the text’s message culminated in
23
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
two chapters that detail the meetings between the author
and Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, in which the monk
secured a number of edicts protecting Jains and Jain
pilgrimage sites. The text argued for Jains to see the new
polity as ushering in a new era of prosperity.
Lynna Dhanani, (PhD candidate Yale University),
presented a section of her dissertation research on the
production of Jain hymns in Gujarati from the fifteenth
century onward: The Continuation of Hymn-Making
in Old Gujarati during Muslim Rule. This period is
characterized by the emergence of an independent
sultanate in Gujarat, which coincided with an explosion
of Jain hymns, narratives and other genres in the emerging
linguistic medium of Gujarati. Dhanani argued that these
new literary forms participated in a vibrant, inventive
literary culture emerging at the time, contrary to earlier
depictions of Jain intellectual life having gone into an
isolationist retreat in this period. Dhanani demonstrated
the ways in which Apabhraṃśa poetic forms were
marshaled to create new literary modes of expression that
both show Jain poets’ intellectual and poetic bonafides as
well as their ability to adapt new linguistic registers and
poetic styles into their work.
Gregory Clines (PhD candidate at Harvard University)
spoke on Digambara Jain Expansion in Fifteenth-Century
North India. Clines offered a careful reconstruction of
the status of the Digambara tradition in Gujarat in this
period, addressing the near total lack of scholarship on
Digambara communities of western India in this period.
He demonstrated that several new centers of monastic
power emerged in this period, such as Idar, Bhanpur
and Surat, each producing new literary works that reveal
competition, growth and innovation in the Digambara
traditions. His comparison of Sanskrit purāṇas
(Harivaṃśa and Padmapurāṇa) and Gujarati rāsas by the
Digambara monk Jinadāsa show a new division of labor
of concerns of works in each language—Sanskrit works
concern themselves with social order, while Gujarati
works focus more on poetic renderings of beloved
figures such as Jaṃbūsāmī and Yasodharā. By showing
the new concerns that emerged in both the classical and
vernacular literature, he countered narratives of decline
that have often characterized historiography on Jainism’s
encounters with Islam, and added a note of caution to
avoid making arguments about Jain “exceptionalism” in
our use of the literature of this period to write the history
of this encounter.
In Telling the Story: The Historiography of Jain
Communities in Mughal India Audrey Truschke
(Rutgers University-Newark) argued that recent efforts
to counter older historical narratives of decay and
decline with narratives of cooperation and coexistence
between Jains and Muslim rulers have elided the
serious problem of the power imbalance between the
two groups. Truschke discussed two narratives found
in the Hīrasaubhāgyamahākāvya of Devavimala that
highlight moments when Akbar made his Jain guests
offers they could not refuse. To highlight just the first,
Truschke discussed Akbar’s gift to Hīravijayasūri of his
24
predecessor’s library, which he had kept in anticipation
of meeting a Jain monk worthy to receive it. The monk
was reluctant to accept the books until an advisor pointed
out that refusing would cause him a great deal of trouble.
The fact that their interactions were not between equals
should caution historians not to offer sanguine historical
depictions in place of demonizing ones, but to develop
nuanced readings that attend to questions of power.
Anne Monius, Harvard University, offered the
response, with a lively discussion of the papers afterward.
Steven M. Vose is the Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant
Professor of Jain Studies and Director of the Jain Studies
Program at Florida International University. Vose’s
PhD dissertation focused on late medieval Śvetāmbara
literature in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Old Gujarati to
understand how mendicants’ intellectual practices
facilitated the encounter between Jains and the Delhi
Sultanate in the early fourteenth century.
Gregory Clines is a PhD candidate in the Committee on
the Study of Religion at Harvard University. His research
interests include Jain purāṇic literature and earlymodern Digambara Jainism in north India.
20th Anniversary Conference
History and Current State
of Jaina Studies
23-24 March 2018
Papers addressing related questions related from a
variety of perspectives are invited.
For further information please see:
www.soas.ac.uk/jainastudies
Inquiries: jainastudies@soas.ac.uk
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Jaina-Prosopography: Monastic Lineages, Networks and Patronage
Peter Flügel
_____________________________________________________________________
I
n the last two and a half millennia the itinerant Jaina
mendicant tradition exerted an important influence
on Indian culture and society. From its region of origin
in modern Bihar it spread across most parts of South
Asia. In the process it segmented into numerous schools,
sects, and lineages, which emerged and differentiated
in complex interaction with local social and political
configurations. Considerable advances towards the
reconstruction of the history of the Jaina monastic
tradition have been made through the publication
and analysis of inscriptions and monastic chronicles.
Yet, the social history of Jainism remains imperfectly
understood. This is because the principal source, a vast
corpus of published bio-bibliographical data embedded
in manuscripts and inscriptions, has thus far not been
systematically investigated.
Background
The need for more historical information on Jaina
mendicants, texts and patrons has long been felt. Until
the belated publication in 2016 of Johannes Klatt’s JainaOnomasticon (Leverhulme RPG-2012-620),1 however,
only data on selected individuals or lineages were
published. Klatt offers comprehensive information, but
makes no attempt at cross-referencing and interlinking
data. The interrelations and socio-geographical contexts
of the documented texts, temples, mendicants and
patrons, have never been studied systematically, though
suitable materials and analytical strategies abound.
New Methodology
A new research project of the CoJS at SOAS, funded
by Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant RPG2016-454, now explores the relationships between Jaina
mendicant lineages and their supporters, focusing on the
nexus of monastic recruitment, geographical circulation
of monks and nuns, their biographies and literary
production, and patronage of mendicant inspired religious
ventures. The project is inspired by the overall vision to
reconstruct the social-history of the Jaina tradition. It
introduces a novel sociological approach to Jaina studies
for the analysis of Jaina monastic lineages, networks
and patterns of patronage as documented in colophons
of manuscripts and inscriptions, using prosopographical
methods, advanced digital technology and visualization
techniques.
Prosopography is a research tool for studying patterns
of relationships, based on the collection and analysis
of biographical data about a well-defined group of
individuals. It is a useful tool to discern trends and
1 Peter Flügel & Kornelius Krümpelmann, eds. (2016) JainaOnomasticon by Johannes Klatt. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Jaina
Studies 1).
relations that are not clearly visible, and enables the
socio-historical study of groups, such as the Jainas, where
a vast amount of scattered biographical information
instead of extensive life histories of historical individuals
is available. Jaina texts present biographical information
in formulaic pre-processed formats (birth, family,
renunciation, teachers, monastic offices, peregrinations,
significant accomplishments and encounters, death,
disciples) which are particularly suited to computersupported analysis. The project will integrate and analyse
such pre-processed data from five different sources. The
computer-assisted prosopographical investigation of the
socio-religious history of the Jaina tradition is essential
for any future research in this area. It will synthesise and
help analysing hitherto unconnected resources.
Aims and Objectives
The specific aim of the project is the sociological
investigation of Jaina monastic lineages and relationships
between Jaina mendicants and lay-followers by
integrating and analysing previously unconnected
evidence from different bio-bibliographical sources on
more than 30,000 Jaina mendicants, scribes and sponsors
from medieval times onward. An innovative data-model
and comprehensive prosopographical database developed
in collaboration with the Acharya Shri Kailasasagarsuri
Gyanmandir in Koba, the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute
in Ladnun, and the HRI Digital at Sheffield University
will provide rich data for the planned socio-historical
analysis of monastic networks and patronage. The open
access database will also offer an unparalleled wealth of
historical data for future projects on Jaina history and
culture.
The employment of the data assembled in manuscript
catalogues and compilations of inscriptions for
systematic sociological research is just beginning.
Sociobibliography in the age of electronic data promises
to revolutionise the way in which manuscript catalogues
are used. In digitised form the aggregate data embedded
25
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
in expertly produced catalogues can be used for historical
and sociological analysis on a large scale, once the
information is transformed into databases that can be
used for a multitude of research projects. The approach
requires interdisciplinary and international collaboration.
26
Peter Flügel
Peter Flügel, principal investigator, and Kornelius
Krümpelmann are researchers and co-editors of the
resulting data-base, which will be developed by Michael
Pidd and Katherine Rogers and hosted by DHI Sheffield,
and shared with collaborating institutions. Advisors
to the project are Professor J.C. Wright and Dr Renate
Söhnen-Thieme (SOAS), Burkhard Quessel (The British
Library), Professor Yigal Bronner (Hebrew University
of Jerusalem), Professor Karin Preisendanz (Universit of
Vienna), and Dr Himal Trikha (Mondes Iranien et Indien,
Paris).
An initial project seminar, organised by the CoJS and
hosted by the Acharya Shri Kailasasagarsuri Gyanmandir
in Koba on 13-15 February 2017, brought together
research teams of SOAS (Dr Peter Flügel, Dr Kornelius
Krümpelmann), Koba (Acharya Ajaysagarsuri, Dr
Hemantbhai Shah, Dr Kalpana Sheth), Jain Vishva
Bharati Institute at Ladnun (Dr Vandana Mehta, Dr S.N.
Bhardwaj), the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
at Pune (Dr Amruta Natu), and The Digital Humanities
Institute of the University of Sheffield (Michael
Pidd, Katherine Rogers). The seminar focused on the
development of a suitable data-model offering enhanced
analytical possibilities, while assuring compatibility
with already existing data-models of digital manuscript
catalogues and prosopographical data-bases. In this way
suitable electronic data can be imported from other databases, which in turn will be able to freely use the JainaProsopography data.
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
The Hindu Reception of Perso-Arabic Traditions of Knowledge and the Role of
Jainism in Cultural Transmission
Olle Qvarnström and Martin Gansten
_________________________________________________________________________________
he religious, literary, and scientific exchanges
between the Perso-Arabic and Indian cultural spheres
during the medieval period are of vital importance for
understanding the intellectual history of Asia—and, by
extension, of Europe, which became the recipient of
Arabized scholarship during and following the Islamic
Golden Age. Nevertheless, comparatively little research
has been done in this field, nearly all of it focussing on
the Perso-Arabic reception of Indian (predominantly
Hindu) traditions of knowledge. The purpose of this
ongoing research project, funded by the Riksbankend
Jubileumsfond, is to examine the flow of ideas in the
opposite direction, that is, Hindu reception of PersoArabic knowledge systems, from the 13th to the 16th
centuries.
The Perso-Arabic reception of Indian knowledge
systems, the focus of the current international research
project Perso-Indica, spans a number of disciplines
including religion, philosophy, mathematics and natural
science. By contrast, the Hindu reception of PersoArabic learning is concentrated to a few areas of central
importance. These include Islamic adaptations of Galenic
medicine, known as yūnānī; but above all, the reception
is dominated by jyotiḥśāstra or astronomical-astrological
disciplines. The transmission of these disciplines is of
fundamental importance for the history of religion. The
divinatory system and metaphysical presuppositions
of horoscopic astrology, springing partly from
Mesopotamian astral religion, partly from the syncretic
milieu of the Hellenistic era, became deeply embedded in
Hinduism after reaching India from the Greek-speaking
world in the early centuries CE, supplanting indigenous
forms of astral divination dating back at least to the
beginning of the first millennium BCE. In pre-Islamic
Persia, astrological beliefs similarly formed essential
parts of Manichaean as well as Zoroastrian religion.
Following the Muslim invasion, Persian astrology was
modified to conform to Islam; and it was in this Arabized
form that it reached India and was once again adapted to
a new religious framework.
At some point between the tenth and thirteenth
century, roughly contemporaneously with the arrival of
Arabic-language astrology in Christian Europe via al-’
Andalūs, the established Hindu astral disciplines were
thus challenged by the formulation of this independent
school, known as tājika-śāstra or ‘the Persian teaching’
and comprising a Sanskritization of Perso-Arabic
traditions. Despite the initial censure of Brahmans who
found its extra-Indian origins unacceptable on grounds
of religious purity, the Tājika system still survives in
India today, particularly in the northern parts of the
subcontinent.
To a large extent, this transmission of Perso-Arabic
knowledge systems influenced by Islam to the Sanskritlanguage cultural sphere was accomplished by the
T
mediation of Jaina scholars. Trade routes between
the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula on one hand
and northwestern India on the other—in particular,
the Saurāṣṭra area of present-day Gujarat—were well
established long before the time of the Delhi Sultanate;
and a prominent part in these contacts was played by
Jaina merchants, who dominated the areas of finance
and coinage in the region. Influential Jaina families
were thus the natural allies of the Sultanate in financial
and administrative matters, and, by extension, Jaina
intellectuals became intermediaries between Perso-Arabic
and Sanskritic traditions of knowledge. By this mediation
of ‘familiar strangers’, Islamic astronomy-astrology
was made accessible to the Brahmanic intellectual
majority. The perhaps earliest preserved Sanskrit work
on tājika-śāstra, the Trailokyaprakāśa, is said to have
been authored by Jaina scholar Hemaprabhasūri in 1248;
and in 1370, around the time when Geoffrey Chaucer
wrote his Treatise on the Astrolabe in the English
vernacular, Mahendrasūri—another Jaina—composed
the first Sanskrit manual (the Yantrarājāgama) on this
sophisticated astronomical instrument introduced into
India by Muslim astronomer-astrologers.
The current project thus consists of two mutually
dependent lines of research: on the one hand, the
broader issues of Jaina perceptions of Islamic culture
and mediation between Islamicized and Hindu systems
of knowledge; and on the other, the more specialized
enquiry into the Hindu reception of Perso-Arabic
astral knowledge traditions (tājika-śāstra). For the
latter, a major focal point is the encyclopaedic work
Hāyanaratna, composed at the court of Shāh Shujā‘
at Agra in 1629 by his Brahman court astrologer
Balabhadra; for the former, the fourteenth-century work
Nābhinandanajinoddhāraprabandha by Kakkasūri,
depicting the interaction between the Muslim regime
and local Jaina merchants, is proving a particularly
fruitful source text. The research so far indicates that the
Prāgvaṭa community (known today as Porwad, a mixed
Jaina-Hindu group) played a major part in the early
transmission process.
Martin Gansten and Olle Qvarnström of Lund University outside the
Oriental Research Institute in Mysore, where they were looking for
additional source material. Photo: Anna Gansten
27
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
A Rare Letter of a Bhaṭṭāraka of Malayādri (=Malayakheḍa>Malkhed)
Padmanabh S. Jaini
Y
_________________________________________________________________________________
ears ago, Bhuvanendra Kumar, editor of the
Jinamanjari (published in Canada, now defunct),
gave me a copy of the first page of a letter, written on
11x14 paper, to decipher. It is written in Marathi in Moḍī
(cursive) lipi, which was used mostly for correspondence
and bookkeeping during the eighteenth century in
Maharashtra (Figure 1). The subsequent pages, which
would have given us the contents of the letter, are
missing. Bhuvanendra Kumar has returned to India and
is not available to answer questions about where he
obtained it, or if he has more pages of this letter.
In December 2004 I sent this page to (the late)
Subhāścandra Akkoḷe, editor of Sanmati Māsik at
Bāhubali, to find someone at Kolhapur who could read
it. He found an old brāhmaṇa paṇḍit able to reproduce
it in Nāgarī. I have made a romanized copy of the same
here for publication along with the original in Moḍi lipi
(Figure 2).
This letter with two seals, one of the office of a
bhaṭṭāraka and one of his name, together with its date
(1870 CE) and its place of origin (Sātārā), is addressed
by a bhaṭṭāraka to a large number of members of a single
Jaina community, known as Kāsāra (kaṃsa-kāra= copper/
bronze-smith), living in Puṇe, Maharashtra. It is unique
in the bhaṭṭāraka tradition because, to the best of my
knowledge, it is the only extant letter from a bhaṭṭāraka
to his lay disciples.
The letter begins:
From: Rājendrakīrti bhaṭṭārakapaṭṭācārya, the
supreme head of the Balātkāragaṇa.
To: the group [of Kāsāra-s], the dearest and
foremost among his true (khare) disciples, all of
whom (tamām) are devoted to the religion (dharma)
of the Jinas.
This is followed by names of twenty-five such
householders, serial numbers appearing before their
names.
The letter continues:
To all Somavaṃśī Kṣatriya Kāsāras resident
(mukkām) in Puṇe: auspicious blessings for the
increase in your piety (dharma). Moreover, today,
[our] stay [begins] here at Sātārā [south of Puṇe
and north of Kolhapur, possibly for the four months
(cāturmāsa) of retreat, during the rainy season]
engaged in recitation of holy prayers and study of
the scriptures. We wish constant spiritual welfare
for your families. After this, from here [Sātārā], this
letter to you, today, in the month of Āṣāḍha, fifth
day of the bright half of the month, Śaka year 1792
(=1792+78=1870 CE).
28
Figure 1. The original letter in Moḍī script. Photo courtesy of
Bhuvanendra Kumar.
The letter ends on this page. The remaining pages are yet
to be discovered.
Given the large number of wealthy Kāsāra merchants
(Marathi seṭa-/seṭha-s) who are named, these pages
might reveal a grand project (e.g., renovation of the old
temples) of the Bhaṭṭāraka Rājendrakīrti, himself, most
certainly, a Kāsāra Jaina, like several of his predecessors
on the Malkhed-pīṭha.
I will now comment on a number of important points
raised by this document regarding the official seals and
the community to whom this letter is addressed.
Malayādri=Mānyakheṭa>Malayakheḍa>Malayādri>
Malkhed
Nathuram Premi (1956: 229) gives a brief history of
Malkhed, a village with two ruined Jaina temples, in
the Gulbarga District of Karnataka state. Malkhed was
the capital of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa King Kṛṣṇa III in 966
CE. Around this time, the famous (Śaiva turned) Jaina
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Śrī Kālikādevī prasanna//śrī
śrī Padmāvatīdevī prasanna
Śrī
svastiśrī Kuṃdakuṃdānvaya Mūlasaṃgha
Sarasvatīgac[c]ha Pārśvanātha[-]Padmāvatīlabdhavaraprasanna Balātkāragaṇa Nemicaṃdrasid[d]hāntakīrti svāmī
siṃhāsana Malayādrī śrī//
// śri//
Rājendrakīrtī(i)
Bhaṭṭāraka pa
ṭṭācārya svāmījī
svasti śrī nijaghaṭikā śubhasthāna Dil[l]ī Malayādrī
Vijayanagara paṭṭa-Paṃbūna(-bucca?) catuḥsiddhasiṃhāsana
-śrīmad mahāvādivādīśvara svāmī Rājendrakīrti bhaṭṭārakapaṭṭācārya Balo(ā)tkāra gaṇādhigaṇī tak[h]ta Malakheḍa [:]
tamām khare atyaṃta paramaprī(i)ya agraśiṣyavarga Jinadharmapratipālaka(1) Raojī seṭ[h]a Taḷegāṃvakara- (2) Bālakṛṣṇa seṭha Murūḍakara- (3) Jayarāma seṭha
Dāṃgare- (4) Govinda seṭha Taksāle- (5) Nārāyaṇa seṭha Sātapute- (6) Dattobā
seṭha Solaṃkara- (7) Rāojī seṭha Sāsavaḍe- (8) Morobā seṭha Dhumāla(9) Aṇṇā seṭha Sātapute- (10) Nānā seṭha Taṃṭāka- (11) Gaṇūrāva setha- (12)
Ātmārāma seṭha Taḷegāṃvakara- (13) Bāpu seṭha Taḷegāṃvakara- (14) Tukārāma seṭha
Sīrāpure- (15) Bhīkobā seṭha Yelāpure- (16) Raṃgobā seṭha Bhivaḍīkara(17) Dhoṃḍībā Nagarakara- (18) Kṛṣṇāppā seṭha Gore- (19) Gopāla seṭha Rāṃgoḷe(20) Dhoṃḍībā seṭha Sīrāpure- (21) Gaṇapatī seṭha Solaṃkara- (22) Tukārāma seṭha
Sāsavaḍe (23) Mārutī seṭha Muraḍakara- (24) Mārutī seṭha Janāvare- (25) Rāma seṭha
Sālavī va samasta Somavaṃśī kṣe(a)trī(i)ya Kāsāra mu[kkāma]// Puṇe yāṃsī
dharmavṛddhī aneka āśīrvāda [//] uparī āja mu[kkāma]// Sātārā yethe// japa stotra//
dhyāna adhyayana karūna tumace kuṭuṃbavargāsa niraṃtara kalyāṇa icchita aso [//]
yā naṃtara āpaṇāsa patra yethūna Āṣāḍha śuddha 5 śake 1792 rojī …{=3 July 1870}
pāthavile āhec.
Figure 2. Transcription of Figure 1
poet Puṣpadanta, the author of the Apabhraṃśa Prakrit
Mahāpurāṇa, mentions how this city (Mānyakheṭa/
Maṇṇakheḍa) was looted and burned by the Paramāra
King Siyaka-Gurjararāja in Śaka 894 (=972 CE).
However, there is no mention of a bhaṭṭāraka seat there
in Puṣpadanta’s works. Long after the reconstruction of
the city, it was called Malayakheḍa, and according to
Desai (2001: 323), in an inscription (1393 CE) at the
Neminātha temple, it was called Malayādri. Now it is the
small village called Malkhed.
Details Regarding the Balātkāragaṇa at Malkhed
According to Joharapurakar (1956: §§73–74) the
Balātkāragaṇa pīṭha was established in Karanja from
the time of Bhaṭṭāraka Dharmabhūṣaṇa (early 18th
century) onwards. Prior to this, the seat was located at
Mānyakheḍa (Malayakheḍa). However, Detige (2015:
149) notes that it was established earlier: “According
to Chavare, it was Bhaṭṭāraka Dharmacandra who
established the Balātkāragaṇa-pīṭha in Karanja in saṃvat
1575 (=1518 CE), as the first branch of the Mānyakheḍapīṭha.” Thus, the Balātkāragaṇa at Mānyakheḍa may go
back to about 1400 CE.
Śrī Mūlasaṃgha-Balātkāragaṇa and the Change from
Balakāra to Balātkāra
The Balātkāragaṇa as well as the Senagaṇa both
call themselves Mūlasaṃgha. Sometimes the word
Balātkāragaṇa is dropped; only Mūlasaṃgha is retained.
Detige (2015: 148, n. 26) suggests: “The preference
for Mūlasaṃgha elsewhere might also be dependent on
the negative primary meaning of the word balātkāra in
modern Hindi (violence, rape).”
It is unlikely that the learned Digambara Jains, both in
the north and south, would not have been aware of such
negative meanings of the word balātkāra, and yet they
chose to use it. It is necessary to see if this name was
newly adopted, in preference to the original Kannada
name Baḷagāra, the meaning of which may have been
forgotten.
I venture to suggest that instead of balātkāra the
original word might have been balakāra = balagāra: from
Skt. valaya-kāra = bracelet / bangle-maker and seller;
Kannada baḷegāra, and according to Joharapurakar, there
is inscriptional evidence in support of this, as discussed
below.
29
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
In tenth-century Karnataka, there was a large
community of Digambara Jains engaged in this business,
in the neighborhood of Malkhed, notably at Mudhoḷ,
190 kilometers from Gulbarga. The Kannada Jain poet
Ranna (=Ratna, 993 CE), in his Ajitatīrthaṅkara-purāṇa
tilakam, calls himself a proud member of this baḷagāra
community:
Beḷugare nāḍoḷ puṭṭida
Baḷegārara kuladoḷ ereda Ajitaśāsanamaṃ/
beḷaguva cakreśvara maṇḍaḷeśvaraṃ besase negaḷda kaviRatnaṃ//12.45.1
The famous (negaḷda) poet Ratnam (Ranna) was
born in the Beḷugare province. He belonged to the caste
(family) of Baḷegāra (bangle seller). He (Ranna) wrote
the excellent (ereda) Ajitaśāsanamam (Ajita Tīrthaṅkara
Purāṇa) on the command of the lustrous cakreśvara
(emperor) and maṇḍaḷeśvara.
A community of baḷagaras, with a Jaina poet of
such eminence, might also have produced Jaina munis
who would travel north and would be known as munis
of the Balagara/Balakara/Balakāra-gaṇa. For example,
śrī Mūlasaṃghada Balakara-gaṇada; Baḷagara-gaṇada
(Nagarajaiah 1998: 17).
Joharapurakar (1956: §89 and §91) states:
In old inscriptions (§§87–88) only Balātkāragaṇa
is found. But it appears that the original form
is Baḷagāra-gaṇa [an inscription from the north
Karnataka city Beḷagaum] §89 ‘rājadhāni Beḷḷgāviya
śakavarṣa 970 (=1048 CE) Baḷagāra-gaṇada
Devanandi bhaṭṭārakaśiṣyarappa Keśavanandi
aṣṭopavāsi bhaṭṭāraru…’ Jain Śilālekhasaṃgraha,
II. 220.
Premi (1956: 245), as early as 1921 in Jaina Hitaiṣī
(article reprinted in 1956), had explained at length the
reason for the adoption of the name Balātkāragaṇa:
It appears that there was once, at some time, a debate
on Mount Girnāra between the Digambaras and
Śvetāmbaras concerning the disputed ownership of
the tīrtha (the holy place) and that the Digambara
Muni Padmanandi [in the line of the disciples
of Padmanandi-Kuṃdakuṃdācārya] had forced
[balātkāra = with his mantra-power] the stone
image of goddess Sarasvatī to speak and declare the
Digambaras to be victorious in that debate. Because
of this, the group (gaṇa) led by Padmanandi
Muni was known as [Kuṃdakuṃdānvaya]
Sarasvatīgaccha and Balātkāra-gaṇa.
Premi (1956: 473) quotes the following from the
Nandisaṃgha Gurvāvalī:
Padmanandī gurur jāto Balātkāragaṇāgraṇī/
pāṣāṇaghaṭitā yena vāditā śrī Sarasvatī//36//
1 Text and translation by Nagarajaiah.
30
Ujjayantagirau tena gacchaḥ Sārasvato bhavet/
atas
tasmai
munīndrāya
namaḥ
śrī
Padmanandine//37//
Padmanandi’s time given in this Gurvāvalī is from
Vikrama saṃvat 1385 to 1450 (=1328 to 1393 CE). This
Padmanandi of Nandisaṃgha Gurvāvalī must therefore
be “abhinava, i.e. later” than the one appearing elsewhere
in Premi (1956: 288): Dhārā meṃ Balātkāragaṇe śrī
Padmanandi Nandisaṃgha saṃvat 1087(=1030 CE)
A Humcha copperplate (1515 CE) confirms the
emergence of Balātkāragaṇa from the Nandisaṃgha: “Śrī
Mūlasanghe jani Nandisaṃghas tasmin Balātkāragaṇo ’ti
ramyaḥ” (Nagarajaiah 1997: 122).
Premi (1956: 81) provides a date for when names
ending in -kīrti might have begun: Śrī Kundakunda
Sarasvatīgaccha Balātkāragaṇe Śrī Devendrakīrti,
saṃvat 1416 varṣe (=1369 CE).
Once the word balātkāra was seen in its right context,
it gained currency. It replaced the word balakara/
baḷegara, the origins of which were most probably
forgotten in the north. In Karnataka, it probably was
perceived as a Sanskritized form of the same (similar to
Kāryaranjakapura for Karanja), as well as an honorific
title of their gurus, gained at the holy Mount Girnara.
Paṭṭāvalī at Malkhed
Nemichandra-Siddhāntakīrtiswāmī
“The present line of Malkhed gurus claims its foundation
by the pontiff Abhinava Nemichandra Siddhāntakīrti
Bhaṭṭāraka” (Desai 2001: 323). Obviously this refers to
Ācārya Nemicandra of Śravaṇabeḷgoḷa, the renowned
teacher of Cāmuṇḍarāya, and author of Gommaṭasāra
Jīva- and Karma-kāṇḍa. These two texts were known as
siddhānta, and a muni or a bhaṭṭāraka mastering them
was given the title “Siddhānta-cakravartī.” The Malkhed
bhaṭṭārakas appear to have used this as part of the
hereditary title of their seat.
Desai (2001: 328) writes:
The paṭṭāvalī of Malkhed gurus in my possession
was taken down as it was recited by a priest of the
Malkhed Neminātha Temple some 20 years ago
(=in 1936). The priestly line of the Malkhed pontiffs
runs as follows: (1) Nemicandra Siddhāntakīrti
(2) Buddhisāgara (3) Mantravādi Devendrakīrti
(4) Daṇḍa Devendrakīrti (5) Candrakīrti (6)
Mahendrakīrti (7) Śrī Dhanakīrti (8) Devendrakīrti
(9) Rājendrakīrti (10) Ratnakīrti.
Rājendrakīrti
Rājendrakīrti, the bhaṭṭāraka of this letter, appears
to be the same as the 9th bhaṭṭāraka of the above list.
This also happens to be the name of a bhaṭṭāraka of the
Kāṣṭhāsaṃgha in North India (patronized by the Agravāla
Jains) in the years from 1853 to 1872 (Joharapurakar
1956: §§618–620).
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Traditionally (like Cārukīrti at Śravaṇabeḷgoḷa and
Mūḍabidrī) the official name of this pīṭha appears
to have been Devendrakīrti (the same as that of the
Humcha bhaṭṭāraka even to this day): “Maḷe(a)ayakheḍa
siddhasiṃhāsanādhīśvara
śrīmad
Devendrakīrtibhaṭṭārakadevaru” (Nagarajaiah 1997: 127). The title
“Pārśvanātha-Padmāvatī-labdhavaraprasanna” in the
seal also hints at the possibility that the bhaṭṭārakas of
Malkhed were confirmed at the Padmāvatī-devī shrine at
Humcha.
Rājendrakīrti’s titles
There are two words common to the titles of the
bhaṭṭārakas of the Balātkāragaṇa: (1) nijaghaṭikāsthāna
= religious headquarters or a seat of higher learning and
(2) siddha- siṃhāsana = primeaval pontifical throne
(Desai 2001: 330). Some of his titles (birudāvaḷi in
Kannada) can be compared with those of his predecessor
(8) Bhaṭṭāraka Devendrakīrti (ca. 1500): “Svasti
śrīmad rājaguru vasundharācāryavarya mahāvādi
vādīśvara rāyavādipitāmaha … śrī MūlasaṃghaKuṃdakuṃdānvaya-Sarasvatīgaccha-Balātkāragaṇamukhya …//” (Nagarajaiah 1997: 127).
The Last Bhaṭṭāraka of Malkhed
Rājendrakīrti’s letter is dated 1870 C.E. The dates of his
successor Ratnakīrti (no. 10) are not known. However,
the Jaina Bodhaka, a Marathi newspaper from Solapur,
dated May 1889, carries an article on the tenth bhaṭṭāraka,
Ratnakīrti. After Ratnakīrti there seems to have been a
period of uncertainty for a number of years.2
The Malkhed temple was renovated in 1948 by the
Jaina community from the cities in the surrounding
areas such as Sedam and Gulbarga, both in
Karnataka. The bhaṭṭāraka-ji was appointed at the
Malkhed bhaṭṭāraka pīṭha in the year 1950–51
by the Humcha bhaṭṭāraka-ji, who named him
Devendrakīrti Bhaṭṭāraka. He is originally from
Miraj, of the Kāsāra-Jaina community. He was
on the pīṭha from 1950 until 1961. He left the
pīṭha [probably for want of Jaina householders in
Malkhed] and went back to Miraj.
Community Members to Whom the Letter is Addressed
All of the members of the community addressed in this
letter are called seṭha (Skt. śreṣṭhin) meaning “a rich
moneylender,” but it is also an honorific term often
applied to a merchant. The names show that many of
them have come from neighboring areas: Sāsavaḍe,
2 I am indebted to Chandramohan Ratanchand Shah and Chandraneel
Jaderia for the information in the Jaina Bodhaka as well as for the
above quotation, which was verified from the records of the Humcha
Maṭha.
Figure 3. A non-Jaina image of Kālikādevī at Neknur, Beed, Marathwada, Maharashtra. Photo courtesy of Neelamohan Jaderia.
Taḷegāva-kar, Murkū-kar, Taksāle-kar, Soḷaṃ-kar,
Bhivanḍī-kar, Nagar-kar, Aundha-kar, to settle (mukkām)
at Puṇe. Their names reveal a predominance of Vaiṣṇava
names, (e.g., Bālakṛṣṇa, Jayarāma, Govinda, Nārāyaṇa,
Dattobā, Tukārāma, Gopāla, Gaṇapati, and Māruti),
common probably in those days among the Jaina Kāsāras
and Vaiṣṇava Kāsāras (who allow intermarriage, similar
to the Jaina and Vaiṣṇava Agravālas in the north).3
Over two hundred years from the time of Rājendrakīrti,
the names of Jaina Kāsāras, in cities like Solapur and
Kolhapur, have changed considerably. Yet in their middle
names (usually of fathers for men) one finds such nonJaina names as Gajānana, Gaṇeśa, Gaṇapati, Paṇḍhari,
Dattātreya, Śaṅkara, and Tukārāma, a practice of a past
generation only.
3 I am indebted to Nemināth Śāstrī for providing me the following
names of some prominent members of the Jaina Kāsāras in and
around Kolhapur and Solapur: Pavan Jayakumār Bāgvāḍe, Manoj
Bahirśeṭ, Rameś Civaṭe, Praśānt Dongare, Gajānan Bāburāo Dorle,
Vilās Durugkar, Amar Bhūpāl Gargaṭṭe, Sambhājī Bābūrao Hajāre,
Gaṇeś Candu Heravāḍe, Udaya Bābājī Jamadāḍhe, Pradīp Kāḍuskar,
Śāntināth Gaṇapati Kāsār, Dilīp Śāntināth Khobre, Uday Lengaḍe,
Madhukar Lokhaṇḍe, Ravikiraṇ Maindargi, Vasanta Baṇḍobā
Māmlekar, Abhinandan Bāpusāheb Pokaḷe, Pradīpa Phalṭaṇe, Paṇḍhari
Rājārām Mohare, Nemināth Candrakānt Nille, Padmākar Vidyādhar
Rāngoḷe, Śrīkānt Dattātraya Rokaḍe, Vardhamān Śāntināth Ruikar,
Mohan Śankar Sāḷavī, Anil Sāsavaḍe, Murlidhar Kisanlāl Sātapute,
Māṇikarāo Tangā, Bharamā Tukārām Vaṇakudre, Vasant Dhoṇḍirām
Vaṇakudre.
31
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Kāsāras
As the Baḷagaras (bangle-makers) of the tenth-century
poet Ranna’s time developed their skill in working in
copper and bronze, mostly producing household utensils
(pātra) and temple bells and so forth, they came to be
known as Kāsāras (from Skt. kaṃsakāras), workers in
copper or brass, bell-founders. They became wealthy
merchants by the 19th century as testified by Bhaṭṭāraka
Rājendrakīrti’s letter. They were spread all over major
cities of southern Maharashtra, from Pune/Kolhapur
in the west, to Solapur/Mudhol in the east. The Śrī
Pārśvanātha Kāsāra Jaina Mandira, in Shukravar Peth
at Solapur, was established in ca. 1300 CE. Another
major temple is in Kolhapur, called Śrī Candraprabha
Digambara Jaina Kāsāra Mandira, distinguished by its
images of the yakṣīs Jvālāmālinī, Padmāvatī, and most
conspicuously, the Kālikādevī, discussed below.
In addition to providing bhaṭṭārakas to the Malkhedpīṭha, the Kāsāra community has, in the last century,
produced a number of Digambara munis in the lineage
of Ācārya Śāntisāgara: Pāyasāgara, Vimalasāgara,
Hemasāgara, Jayasena, Jayakīrti, and Anantakīrti.
Somavaṃśī Kṣatriya-Kāsāra
The legend of the lineage of Somavaṃśa (from Bāhubali,
the second son of the first tīrthaṅkara Ṛṣabha) of the
Kāsāras and their self-identity as being of the warrior
(kṣatriya) jāti, probably derives from the early 18thcentury Kālikā Purāṇa of Bhaṭṭāraka Devendrakīrti.4
Figure 5. Close-up of the image of Kālikādevi=Kālī Yakṣī (of Supārśva
Jina) (far-right image in figure 4) at the Śrī Candraprabha Digambara
Jaina Kāsāra Mandira, Kāsāra Gali, Kolhapur. Photo courtesy of Suhas
Duge.
4 See Akkoḷe 1968: 175–78. For the numbers of Kāsāras in the
population, see Sangave: 1980: 120.
Figure 4. (left to right) Two images of Padmāvatī Yakṣī of Jina Pārśva (possibly identified with Kālī Yakṣī of Jina Supārśva) and an image of
Kālikādevi=Kālī Yakṣī (of Supārśva Jina) at the Śrī Chandraprabha Digambara Jaina Kāsāra Mandira, Kāsāra Gali, Kolhapur. Photo courtesy of Suhas
Duge.
32
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Identity of the Goddess Kālikā Invoked at the Top of the
Letter
Śrī Kālikādevī prasanna// śrī Padmāvatīdevī prasanna//
The bhaṭṭāraka invokes blessings of these two goddesses
(devī) by placing them on the left and right side,
respectively, at the head of the letter. Non-Jaina images of
wholly vegetarian Kālikādevī are found in Maharashtra.
(Figure 3) She is not widely known as a Jaina goddess
and hence her presence here needs explanation.
P.B. Desai (2001: 189) observes: “Icons at Malkhed
stand in the temple of Pārśvanātha, in one side
Dharaṇendra, in another Padmāvatī. The third image is
that of Kālī, locally known as Kāḷammā. This should
be identified with the Vidyādevī of the pantheon” (right
upper: varada, right lower: khaḍga, left upper: shield,
left lower: fruit).
Kālī Devī does appear in the list of vidyā-devis (Varni
1976: vol. 3, 552): Rohiṇī, Prajñapti, Vajraśṛṃkhalā,
Vajrāṃkuśā, Jāmbūnādā, Puruṣadattā, Kālī, Mahākālī,
Gaurī, Gāndhārī, Jvālāmālinī, Vairoṭī, Acyutā, Mānasī,
Mahāmānasi. Pratiṣṭhāsāroddhāra 3/34-35. But Kālikā
Devī was probably seen as a yakṣī, bearing not weapons
but pāśa and ankuśa only in her two raised hands, by
some bhaṭṭāraka of Malkhed. She was identified with
Kālī-Yakṣī, of the 7th Jina Supārśva in Jaina tradition,
according to the Indranandisaṃhitā (Shastri 2000: 81).5
In the Śrī Candraprabha Digambara Jaina-Kāsāra
Mandira at Kolhapur (ca. 1935) there are two devī images
of special interest in tracing Kālikā Devī’s progress to
Kālī Yakṣī.
One image has on its head (not inside, but) in front
of the crown, a seated medium size image of a Jina with
a very small hood. (Figure 3 and Figure 4, far right)
This image is called Kālī (=Kālikā) yakṣī [of SupārśvaJina]. The icon of Supārśva with a hood might have been
modeled on the image of Pārśva.
The second image is an imitation of the same. But it is
distinguished by a hood above the small image of a Jina,
and a much larger hood of a snake above the yakṣī’s head.
This I propose to be the image of the same Kālikā Devī/
Yakṣī, now possibly integrated with Padmāvatī Devī, the
yakṣī of Jina Pārśvanātha.
Such integration might explain the statement made
in the sixteenth-century Marathi metrical Kālikāpurāṇa (48 chapters, over 7000 ovī-s) that Kālikā
Devī is the same as Devī Padmāvatī. The author of this
purāṇa, Devendrakīrti, himself a Kāsāra Jaina, was a
bhaṭṭāraka of Balātkāragaṇa at Latur (see Akkoḷe 1968:
76–78). Akkoḷe does not seem to have been aware of the
existence of the image of Kālikā Devī in the Kolhapur
Kāsāra Jaina temple, but the existence of this image may
substantiate Devendrakīrti’s statement.
References
Akkoḷe, Subhāścandra. Pracīna Marāṭhī Jaina Sāhitya.
Nāgpūr: Suvicār Prakāśan Maṇḍal, 1968 (pp. 76–78).
Desai, P.B. Jainism in South India and Some Jain
Epigraphs. Solapur: Jivaraj Jain Granthamala, 2nd ed.,
2001.
Detige, Tillo. “The Bhaṭṭārakas of Kārañjā (Lāḍa):
Triveṇī Saṅgama at Jaina Kāśī,” pp. 143–84. Sanmati,
Essays in Honour of Professor Hampa Nagarajaiah. Ed.
Luitgard Soni & Jayandra Soni. Bangalore: Sapna Book
House, 2015.
Joharapurakar, Vidyadhara. Bhaṭṭāraka Sampradāya.
Solapur: Jivarāj Jain Granthamālā, 1956.
Nagarajaiah, Hampa. Hombuja Śāsanagaḷu, Hombuja,
1997.
Nagarajaiah, Hampa. Koppaḷa Śāsanagaḷu, Mysore,
1998.
Nagarajaiah, Hampa (ed.) Ranna Sampuṭa, Hampi:
Kannada Viśva Vidyālaya, 2006.
Premi, Nathuram. “Nandi-saṃghakī Gurvāvalī.” Jaina
Hitaiṣī 6, 7–8 (1921) (Reprinted in Premi 1956).
Premi, Nathuram. Jaina Sāhityakā Itihāsa. Bombay:
Hindi Grantha Ratnakāra, 1956.
Sangave, Vilas. Jaina Community: A Social Survey.
Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1980.
Shastri, Vardhaman Parśvanath. Jaina Dharmadalli
Śāsanadevategaḷa Sthāna. Translated into Kannada by
Dhanyakumar Jaini. Dharwad, 2000.
Varni, Jinendra. Jainendra Siddhāntakośa. Bhāratīya
Jñānapīṭha, Delhi, 1976.
Padmanabh S. Jaini is Professor Emeritus of Buddhist
Studies at the Department of South and Southeast Asian
Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
5 Cakreśvarī(1) Rohiṇī(2) ca Prajñaptir(3) Vajraśṛṃkhalā(4)/
Varadattā(5) Manovegā(6) Kālī(7) Jvālādimālinī(8)//Mahākālyabhidhā
devī(9) devī Mānasikāhvayā(10)/ Gaurī(11) Gāndhārikā(12) devī devī
Mānasikāhvayā(13)/tathāAnantamatī(14) Mānasī(15) Mahāmānasī(16)
Jayā(17)//Vijayānyā(18) Aparājitā(19) Bahurūpiṇy(20) abhīṣṭhitā/
Cāmuṇḍākhyā(21) ’tha Kūṣmāṇḍī(22) Padmā(23) Siddhāyinīti(24)ca//
33
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
The Jain Prakrit Origin of the Vetāla
J. C. Wright
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
he etymology, and hence the basic meaning, of the
word Vetāla is unknown. The demon’s representation
in art is particularly gruesome. On the basis of its
most explicit literary application, the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśatikā stories, it was described in the BöhtlingkRoth dictionary (1871), and was still so glossed in
Mayrhofer’s etymological dictionary (KEWA, II, 1976),
as a demon that takes possession of dead bodies. In
Wikipedia it is being defined even more specifically as
‘ghost-like ... spirits inhabiting cadavers and charnel
grounds. These corpses may be used as vehicles for
movement (as they no longer decay while so inhabited);
but a vetala may also leave the body at will’. This Vetala
was necessarily depicted as an emaciated corpse, leaving
to the imagination the disembodied spirit within.
This is in spite of Monier-Williams’s more guarded
‘a kind of demon ... (esp. one occupying a dead body)’.
He and Mayrhofer gave due prominence to the still more
non-committal nature of the earliest attestations. The mātṛ
Vetālajananī (MBh. 9.45.13) is one of a large number of
supernatural beings summoned to combat Asuras, and
described collectively as ranging from tree- and springdwellers to the inhabitants of crossroads and cemeteries.
The Vetālas are variously listed among such supernatural
beings in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (2.10.39 ... vetālān
yātudhānān grahān api; 7.8.38 yakṣāḥ kiṃpuruṣās, tāta,
vetālāḥ siddhakiṃnarāḥ); Vetalī is an epithet of Durgā
in the Harivaṃśa. On the other hand, a comparable
name, Vaitāla (or Vetāla) in the Bhāgavata and Vaitālika
(or Vaitālaki) in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, appears in the list of
transmitters of the Ṛgveda; Vetālabhaṭṭa is named as
Nītiśāstrin and jewel of Vikramāditya’s court; and the
Pali Vetālika, Epic Vaitālika, and Classical Vaitālīya
attend upon royalty. The rite called vetāla- or vaitālīyakarman was understood by M. R. Bhat in his edition and
translation of Bṛhatsaṃhitā as ‘the ‘raising of goblins’
(vetālotthāpana in Rājataraṅgiṇī): a simpler and perhaps
more original version of the notion, ‘raising of the dead’
(matasarīruṭṭhāpanaṃ) appears in the Pali commentary
on vetālam in DN 1.6, where it in fact features amongst a
list of innocent but proscribed entertainments. In Jātaka
VI, 277, the vaitālika similarly accompanies māyākārā
and sobhikā, illusionists and showmen.
Can it be that a single etymology links these disparate
phenomena? That the solution is to be found in Jain
Prakrit should have been clear from the start. The Nijjutti
on Sūyagaḍaṅga I, 2, explains the name of the chapter,
Veyāliyaṃ, as signifying both a composition in Vaitālīya
metre and vaidārika ‘destruction (of Karma)’. Sanskrit
dal- is a dialect form of dṛ- (Mayrhofer, KEWA, II, 24),
presumably Magadhi Prakrit. In reporting this, it did not
occur to Jacobi to infer that, if vaidārika could appear as
veyāl-, it would readily appear also by a Sanskritization
as the demonic and prosodic vetāl-.
The etymology of the demonic epithet vetāla is still
deemed to be in doubt. The Sanskrit tradition offered
T
34
‘abiding in the dead’: aveta (casuistically identified
with preta ‘dead’) + ālaya ‘domain’. Via the literary
association of the demon with decomposition, H.
Petersson in 1922 sought a connection with Anglo-Saxon
wīdl ‘filth’, English widdle. J. Charpentier suggested a
*vaitāḍa ‘dashing to pieces’, but in possible consonance
with PTSD (‘of dialectical origin’) he was willing to
allow it to be non-Aryan. Association with Jain Prakrit
veyāliya obviates such suggestions. Sanskrit vidalanam
‘bursting (intrans. and trans.)’ and vidāraka, vaidārika
‘destructive’ give the basis. The use of -īya in chapter
names, especially in Uttarajjhāyā, and the pervasive
ta-śruti of Jain linguistic tradition explain Sanskritized
vaitãlīya. The commentaries explain Veyāliya, the name
of the second chapter of Sūyagaḍaṅga, as treating of
vidālanīyaṃ karma ‘the karma that is to be destroyed’
and karma-vidalanam ‘the destruction of karma’, and the
text sums itself up in the final verse of the first lesson
as a definition of veyāliya-magga ‘the path of such
destruction’. It can then be that the appellation and name
Vetāla has been inferred from the adjective, Sanskritized
as vaitālika, and employed either as an epithet for a class
of demons or as a synonym of Vaitālika as a designation
for Vedic and Shastric teachers in the sense of destroyers
of error. Ad Bṛhatsaṃhitā 87.12, M. R. Bhat reported
a gloss on vaitālika as ‘naked preceptor’ (though the
context implies rather percussionists); and Vaitālīyakarma and Vetāla-karma as the art of conjuring can
represent a contamination of Jain kamma-veyāliya and
veyālaṇīyaṃ kammaṃ due to the proliferation of Vetāla
mythology.
That vaitālīya, the name of the originally rare metre
in which the Veyāliyajjhayaṇa is composed, is really a
different word, as Jacobi thought, is open to doubt. The
chapter could have given its name to its metre, rather
than have punningly adopted the metre so named, for it
is hardly likely that a complete coalescence of *vaidālika
with vaitālīya could have occurred as early as the
composition of Sūyagaḍaṅga. There seems to be no reason
to suppose that the watchman and panegyrist, the vetālika
of Dīghanikāya and the vaitālika of later Epic, are in any
way associated with that particular metre. Perhaps he
takes his name rather from the inclusion of Vetāla among
the supernatural attendants on the gods, coupled with the
tendency (in Dīghanikāya and elsewhere) to connect the
word with percussion, despite the derogatory implication
‘breaking the rhythm’ of the word vitāla.
Since Alsdorf has shown that Āryā verses are always
intrusive in the older canon, the inclusion of Vaitālīya
metre in the canonical text Sūyagaḍaṅga is further
confirmation that Vaitālīya is the older invention of the
two. After all, Vaitālīya with its two ̆ ̅ ̆ ̅ cadences
largely resembles a fairly common Ṛgvedic Anuṣṭubh
combination, whereas Āryā, with twice ̆ ̅ ̅ ̅ as
its prevalent cadences, unheard of in conjunction in the
Anuṣṭubh, implies deliberate innovation. Since metres
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
grow, rather than shrink, the Anuṣṭubh seems the likely model for both. By completing a fourth gaṇa, and resolution of
long syllables, the Vaitālīya evolved a 7½ gaṇa structure with Jagatī rhythm for the most part, and retaining amphibrachs
( ˘ ̅ ˘ ) in the third and seventh gaṇas: it tended towards:
atha tasya vivāhakautukaṃ lalitaṃ bibhrata eva pārthivaḥ
˘ ˘ ̅ / ˘ ˘ ̅/ ˘ ̅ ˘/ ̅ (˘ ˘)/̅ ̅/ ˘ ˘̅/ ˘ ̅ ˘/ ̅
(Raghuvaṃśa 8.1)
Apart from the resolutions, and completion of a fourth gaṇa, it remains a Ṛgvedic Anuṣṭubh.
The Āryā produced in the end a contrasting result, 7½ gaṇas with the probability of amphibrachs in all the even gaṇas,
and no consistent tendency to complete a fourth gaṇa; finally a shift of the caesura obscured its pseudo-Anuṣṭubh origin:
ālāṇakhambhabaddho ciṭṭhai kaṭṭheṇa giṇhae bhoge (Maṇivaicariya 286 ab)
̅ ̅/ ˘ ̅ ˘ / ̅ ̅ / ̅ ( ˘ ˘ ) / ̅ ̅ / ˘ ̅ ˘/ ̅ ̅ / ̅
āgamma so nisanno khaṭṭāe, tīĕ bhāsio: sāmi (ibid. 655 ab)
̅ ̅ / ˘ ̅ ˘ / ̅ ̅ / ̅ ( ̅ )/ ̅ ̅/ ˘ ̅ ˘/ ̅ ̅ / ˘
eyassa vāhaṇeṇaṃ jeṇa avassaṃ bhaveyavvaṃ (ibid. 291 cd)
̅ ̅/ ˘ ̅ ˘/ ̅ ̅/ ̅ ˘ ˘/̅̅/
˘/̅ ̅/ ̅
āṇesu tena tatto purīĕ ghosāviyaṃ etthaṃ (ibid. 1068 cd)
̅ ̅/ ˘̅ ˘/̅̅ / ˘̅˘/ ̅ ̅/ ˘/̅ ̅/ ̅
Survival of an Anuṣṭubh cadence in both cases means that there is really no call to distinguish between Āryā as
gaṇacchandas and Vaitālīya as mātrāchandas.
In the absence of any other plausible etymology, there is thus reason to believe that the Vaitālīya metre takes its name
from the subject-matter of its most important attestation in Jain literature, i.e., the destruction (vidāraṇa) of Karma. It is
precisely in Jain Prakrit that we find, coupled with vestiges of Magadhi -l- for -r-, an orthographic -t- replacing -d- and
the other lost intervocalic stop consonants. Appropriately, the early canonical text Uttarajjhāyā 20, v. 44, presents the
veyāla as a purely destructive demon, murderous if not exorcised (avipanna). The word vetāla would be basically a
conventional epithet that, like so many essential epithets of gods and demons, has taken on a measure of individuality, in
this case a corpse-haunting spirit, beneficent when propitiated. Durgā’s epithet Vetālī in Harivaṃśa would survive more
authentically in the demoness Vidāri-nāmā of Bṛhatsaṃhitā 53.83 (-ri is for the sake of an amphibrach gaṇa in Āryā
metre), Vidārakī in Gṛhyasūtra, Vidārikā in Agnipurāṇa.
J.C. Wright is Emeritus Professor in Sanskrit at the University of London, and Senior Research Fellow at SOAS. He is
Honourary President of the SOAS Centre of Jaina Studies.
Loliem Vetal
Goa
Photo: Kevin Standage
Reproduced by kind permission from
Kevin Standage: An Indian Travel
Photography Blog
35
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Manuscript Collections of the Western and Central Indian Bhaṭṭārakas
Tillo Detige
_________________________________________________________________________________
haṭṭāraka lineages proliferated throughout Western
and Central India especially in the 15th and 16th
centuries, and continued to flourish and multiply in the
17th to 18th centuries. Though by the 19th century they
seem to have lost much of their influence, most lineages
were discontinued only in 20th century. The age of the
manuscripts in the collections (bhaṇḍāra) discussed
here parallel the rising and declining fortunes of the
bhaṭṭāraka lineages themselves. The majority date from
the 16th to 18th centuries, less to the 15th and 19th
centuries, and yet fewer earlier or later that that. The
bhaṭṭārakas’ bhaṇḍāras typically contained a broad
range of texts, including various genres of literature,
ritual and devotional compositions, philosophical works,
texts on conduct, grammar and poetics, mathematical,
astrological and ayurvedic works, and small numbers of
non-Jaina texts.
The seats of most bhaṭṭāraka lineages are known to
have shifted regularly between various cities and towns,
presumably according to political conditions, or more
directly following patterns of lay migration, which in
turn depended on changing economic opportunities.
From the colophons it is clear that many of the texts
were composed, or copies made, at various consecutive
seats or yet elsewhere. We can safely assume that when
relocating their seats, bhaṭṭārakas often took along their
manuscript collections or at least parts thereof.
Guṭakās or bound manuscripts make up an important
part of most bhaṭṭāraka bhaṇḍāras. Often thought of as
having been personal notebooks, guṭakās were typically
anthologies of miscellaneous, short compositions
ranging from devotional and ritual to philosophical texts,
and sometimes included literature not found elsewhere.
Though thus far little studied, they form a particularly
interesting source for the study of the former usage of
manuscripts, and of early modern Digambara renouncers’
practices more broadly.
B
In an earlier issue of Jaina Studies, Balcerowicz (2015)
reported on Digambara manuscript collections from
across the length and breadth of India.The present article
adds information on the manuscript libraries of some
bhaṭṭāraka seats of Western and Central India visited by
the author in the past years. I first report on a number of
collections connected to the Mūlasaṅgha Balātkāragaṇa,
and then add shorter references to known Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha
and Senagaṇa bhaṇḍāras. While a thorough study of
the general contents of these libraries and a discussion
of specifically noteworthy texts preserved therein lies
beyond the scope of this report, it is hoped that sharing
information on the collections’ whereabouts will
contribute to their further exploration.
Jaipur
Most bhaṭṭāraka bhaṇḍāras are still preserved in
their traditional setting, at the mandiras where the last
incumbents of the various lineages had their seats. A
single exception is the Āmera śāstra-bhaṇḍāra in Jaipur,
one of the best known and most regularly consulted
Digambara manuscript collections in the region.1 The
nucleus of the current collection is the bhaṇḍāra of
the former Mūlasaṅgha Balātkāragaṇa branch referred
to by Joharāpurakara (1958: 97-113) as the DillīJayapuraśākhā, which before the foundation of Jaipur
in 1727 was located at nearby Āmera. Apparently
in the 1940s, after a period of neglect,2 a collection
of 1,600 (remaining?) manuscripts was brought to
Jaipur from the former bhaṭṭāraka seat in Āmera, the
Nemiṇātha Sāṃvalajī Mandira. The manuscripts were
first deposited for some years in a layman’s house, then
1 Kāsalīvāla (1949) catalogues both the original bhaṭṭārakīya bhaṇḍāra
of Āmera and the collection of the Mahāvīrajī. In Kragh (2013), the
Āmera library stands as a case-study for ‘localized literary history’.
2 See Kāsalīvāla (1949): a-ī; Kragh (2013: 20-1).
A guṭakā of the Āmera śāstrabhaṇḍāra wrapped in protective
cloth (veṣṭaṇa), with index card
informing of the manuscript's
general contents and the date of its
preservative treatment. February
2013.
36
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
shifted to a dedicated building, the Mahāvīra Bhavana,
where a research institute and a publishing house were
established, the Jaina Vidyā Saṃsthāna. Manuscripts
were brought over from the pilgrimage site Atiśaya
Kṣetra Mahāvīrajī, the seat of the last Dillī-Jayapuraśākhā
bhaṭṭāraka Candrakīrti (died 1968/9 CE), and added to the
collection. In 1988, the collection and research institute
shifted to the Digambara Jaina Nasiyāṃ Bhaṭṭārakajī
at Narayan Singh Circle (Detige, 2014), where the
Apabhraṃśa Sāhitya Akādamī was established, a centre
of research and teaching on Apabhraṃśa, Prakrit, and
Jainism directed by Kamalacanda Sogāṇī. For several
years, plans have been underway for a new building with
improved facilities a few miles further South in Mālavīya
Nagara, and the relocation should be underway at the
time of this publication. The collection has been further
expanded with endowments from private collections, and
is now nearing 6,000 manuscripts, including more than
700 guṭakās.3 Rarely available elsewhere, a handwritten
catalogue volume of the guṭakās produced in the 20th
century lists in detail their contents, disclosing this
collection of guṭakās in its totality as a resource for the
study of local literary history, practical or ritual canons,
and book history.
Ajmer
Different paths of the development of Jaina manuscript
libraries are exemplified by the bhaṇḍāras of the two
bhaṭṭāraka lineages referred to in sum by Joharāpurakara
(1958: 114-25) as the Balātkāragaṇa Nāgauraśākhā,
which ultimately settled in Ajmer and Nagaur
respectively. The Ajmer lineage’s last incumbent was
Bhaṭṭāraka Harṣakīrti, who was still active in the mid20th century. The manuscript collection of this lineage is
preserved at its former seat, the Digambara Jaina Mandira
Baṛā Dhaṛā (Bābājī kā Mandira) in the Sarāvagī Mohallā
neighborhood in Ajmer (26°27'30.6"N 74°37'50.3"E).
Bhaṇḍāras kept at mandiras are typically managed by
the elected temple trust. As is often the case elsewhere,
the Ajmer collection has most recently been catalogued
by a specialized outsider organization, in this case the
Satśruta Prabhāvanā Ṭrasṭa Bhāvanagara, referred to in
short as the ‘Bhāvnagarvāle’. Their catalogue contains
over 2,000 loose folio manuscripts and 450 guṭakās.
While modest in comparison to both the previous
and the following bhaṇḍāras discussed here, this is a
substantial collection in its own right, filling more than
two cupboards (alamārī) with well-preserved bundles of
manuscripts wrapped in the distinct red cloth.
Nagaur
The second Balātkāragaṇa Nāgauraśākhā branch ended
after the death of Bhaṭṭāraka Devendrakīrti in 19667. Its vast manuscript collection is currently housed
in an annex to the former seat, the Bīsapantha Baṛā
Mandira in Nagaur (27°12'06.6"N 73°44'21.3"E). An
3 Personal communication, K. C. Sogāṇī, 25.11.2016.
An opened manuscript alamārī in a side room of the Baṛā Dhaṛā
Mandira, Ajmer. February 2013.
epigraph above the entrance indicates the repository
was built by Bhaṭṭāraka Devendrakīrti in 1953, naming
it the Bhaṭṭāraka Munīndrakīrti Digambara Jaina
Sarasvatī Bhavana, apparently in homage to a late 19thcentury predecessor. Before its split into the Ajmer and
Nagaur branches, the Nāgauraśākhā first had its main
seat in Nagaur under two consecutive 17th-century
incumbents. Before that and again afterwards, until it
came to settle in Nagaur, the seat of the ‘Nagaur’ branch
shifted between other towns in the Śākambharī region
(Joharāpurakara, 1958: 124). Much of the collection
of 15,000 manuscripts (P.C. Jain, 1981: xxv), amongst
which more than a thousand guṭakās (P.C. Jain, 1985)
can be expected to have been composed or copied
elsewhere. In size, the Nagaur collection surpasses even
the Āmera-śāstra bhaṇḍāra, and is particularly important
for its rich collection of Apabhraṃśa texts. At the time of
a visit to Nagaur in February 2013, I was only permitted
‘darśana’ of the manuscript alamārīs and a few bundles
of manuscripts. The available catalogue volumes (P.C.
Jain, 1981, 1985, 2009), however, show this bhaṇḍāra to
be tantalizingly rich.
Īḍara
Another important Balātkāragaṇa collection was
developed by the so-called Īḍaraśākhā (Joharāpurakara,
1958: 136-58), which together with its sister lineage the
Bhānapuraśākhā (Ibid.: 161-8) was active in the Vāgaḍā
37
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Maṇḍapa of the Pārśvanātha Digambara Jaina Prācīna Jinālaya in Īḍara, still hosting the grantha-bhaṇḍāra of the eponymous Balātkāragaṇa Īḍaraśākhā.
January 2014.
region. Īḍara was the seat of later-day incumbents of the
former lineage, but it seems to have been based further
North at first, in Sāgavāḍā in the 16th and 17th centuries
and possibly in Udaipur in the early 18th century. The
Īḍaraśākhā was discontinued at the turn of the 20th
century, after the death of the lineage’s last full bhaṭṭāraka,
Kanakakīrti. At the Pārśvanātha Digambara Jaina Prācīna
Jinālaya (23°50'52.9"N 73°00'04.7"E), the seat in Īḍara,
the lineage’s manuscript collection is preserved in a
dedicated room named after its founder, the Bhaṭṭāraka
Ācārya Sakalakīrti Prācīna Śruta-bhaṇḍāra. According to
the local caretakers, a substantial part of the collection
was lost in previous decades, allegedly stolen. Yet the
bhaṇḍāra remains an important one. A handwritten
catalogue available onsite lists numerous compositions,
possibly autographs, by the prolific litterateurs for which
this Balātkāragaṇa lineage is reknown, bhaṭṭārakas as
well as brahmacārīs.
Sonagiri
A bhaṇḍāra at the important Digambara pilgrimage
hill (siddha-kṣetra) Sonagiri was formerly under the
custody of the eponymous Mūlasaṅgha Balātkāragaṇa
Sonagiriśākhā bhaṭṭārakas (Joharāpurakara, 1958:
233, 235). The lineage was originally connected at
least as strongly to Gwalior, but later settled to the
south in Sonagiri. It was discontinued, and in practical
terms replaced by a lay trust, after the death in 1974 of
Bhaṭṭāraka Candrabhūṣaṇa, the penultimate bhaṭṭāraka
of West and Central India. At the central courtyard of
the former bhaṭṭāraka seat, referred to as the Bhaṭṭāraka
Koṭhī (mandira no. 8-9), a room is still marked as having
formerly been the ‘depository of handwritten scriptures’
(hastalikhita śāstra bhaṇḍāra). By the time of my visit
38
(December 2013), the collection had been transferred to a
more recent building across the road (mandira no. 11-12,
25°43'11.7"N 78°22'44.9"E), where caraṇa-chatarīs of
four Sonagiri bhaṭṭārakas are also found. The collection
had been catalogued earlier on, and a set of CD-roms was
shown to me containing scans of several dozen rare, old,
or otherwise noteworthy manuscripts. In its new location,
however, the bundles had been placed out of order and no
catalogue could be produced. Worst of all, many of the
alamārīs did not close properly and were infested with
bugs. Left without proper care, bhaṇḍāras may be lost
within a short span of just a few years. Though precise
information is missing, the collection I was able to only
randomly consult comprised at least a few thousand
manuscripts.
Kārañjā and Nagpur
Named after its seat at Kārañjā (Maharashtra), the
Balātkāragaṇa Kārañjāśākhā saw its last incumbent
in Bhaṭṭāraka Devendrakīrti, who died in 1916. Now
managed by a few enthusiasts and local laymen,
and containing over 1,100 paper and some 50 palmleaf manuscripts, its bhaṇḍāra is still kept at the
former seat, the Mūlasaṅgha Candranātha Svāmī
Balātkāragaṇa Digambara Jaina Mandira (20°28'48.6"N
77°29'30.5"E). This collection’s condition is superb, all
manuscripts which I saw being unblemished copies.
At the time of my visit acid-free inlay sheets had just
been fitted between the folios of each manuscript to
prevent the pages from sticking together over time. At
the Pārśvaprabhu Digambara Jaina Moṭhe Mandira
in the Lāḍapurā neighbourhood in nearby Nagpur
(21°09'05.6"N 79°06'37.7"E), a temple connected to the
same bhaṭṭāraka lineage, a modest manuscript library
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
is also found. This collection largely consists of more
recent manuscripts, and has been catalogued by the
Kundakunda Jñānapīṭha in Indore.
Further Balātkāragaṇa bhaṇḍāras
References
Balcerowicz, Piotr. ‘Digambara Jaina Collections of
Manuscripts’. Jaina Studies: Newsletter of the Centre of
Jaina Studies 10 (2015) 48-50.
A small bhaṇḍāra at the Digambara Jaina Mandira in Aṭera
(26°44'57.7"N 78°38'26.5"E) was probably related to the
so-called Balātkāragaṇa Aṭeraśākhā. Nothing is known
about its contents and about the (assumed) existence,
current location, and fate of the manuscript collections of
further Balātkāragaṇa lineages and sub-lineages, notably
the two branches of the Sūrataśākhā and the sub-lineages
of its earlier offspring, the Jerahaṭaśākhā, which spread
through Malwa.4
Detige, Tillo. ‘Worshipping Bhaṭṭārakas’. Jaina Studies:
Newsletter of the Centre of Jaina Studies 9 (2014) 27-30.
Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha and Senagaṇa collections
Jain, Prem Chand. A Descriptive Catalogue of
Manuscripts in the Bhattarkiya Grantha Bhandar Nagaur.
Vol. I-IV. Jaipur: Centre for Jain Studies, University of
Rajasthan, 1979, 1981, 1985, 2009.
So far, I have discussed manuscript collections of
Balātkāragaṇa lineages. I now turn to a more brief
discussion of bhaṇḍāras of a few other bhaṭṭāraka
traditions. Kārañjā, to start travelling North again from
there, is known to have been home to no less than three
bhaṭṭāraka seats (Detige, 2015). A substantial bhaṇḍāra
is found at the Digambara Jaina Pārśvanātha Svāmī
Senagaṇa Mandira, a seat of the Mūlasaṅgha Senagaṇa
for several centuries, and the Senagaṇa’s only branch in
the region under discussion here. References are found to
various Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha lineages at Kārañjā’s Candranātha
Svāmī Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha Digambara Jaina Mandira, yet it’s
manuscript library is more modest (Ibid.: 156-9).
A single manuscript alamārī is preserved at
the Mahāvīra Svāmī Digambara Jaina Mandira in
Aṅkleśvara (near Surat), a temple that was connected to
the Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha Nandītaṭagaccha. A larger manuscript
collection related to the Nandītaṭagaccha is found in
Ṛṣabhadeva-Kesariyājī, an important pilgrimage site
to the South of Udaipur. It is kept at the Bhaṭṭāraka
Bhavana (24°04'36.5"N 73°41'27.6"E), the residence
of Bhaṭṭāraka Yaśakīrti, who was also connected to
Pratāpagaṛha and died in 1978 CE as the last bhaṭṭāraka
North of the Godavari river. I could not consult the
collection, but Kasliwal (1967: 116) reported it contains
over a thousand manuscripts.
Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha Nandītaṭagaccha and Māthuragaccha
lineages branched out across the region not unlike
those of the Mūlasaṅgha Balātkāragaṇa. Their history,
however, is still far less well documented, and
accordingly less is known about the existence and
location of further Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha bhaṇḍāras. It is
possible that their collections never developed to the
same extent as their Balātkāragaṇa counterparts, given
that the Kāṣṭhāsaṅgha seats seem to have been relocated
at least as frequently, and seemingly more widely, than
those of the Balātkāragaṇa.
Detige, Tillo. ‘The Bhaṭṭārakas of Kārañjā (Lāḍa):
Triveṇī Saṅgama at Jaina Kāśī’. In: Luitgard Soni
& Jayandra Soni (eds.) Sanmati, Essays Felicitating
Professor Hampa Nagarajaiah on the Occasion of his
80th Birthday, 143-176. Bengaluru: Sapna Book House,
2015.
Joharāpurakara, Vidyādhara. Bhaṭṭāraka Sampradāya.
Śolāpura: Jaina Saṃskṛti Saṃrakṣaka Saṅgha, 1958.
Kasliwal, Kastoor Chand. Jaina Grantha Bhaṇḍārs in
Rājāsthān. Jaipur: Digamber Jain Atishaya Kshetra Shri
Mahavirji, Mahavir Bhawan, 1967.
Kāsalīvāla, Kastūracanda. Āmera śāstra-bhaṇḍāra,
Jayapura kī Grantha Sūcī. Jayapura: Digambara Jaina
Mahāvīra Atiśaya Kṣetra Kameṭī, 1949.
Kragh, Ulrich Timme. ‘Localized Literary History: Subtext and Cultural Heritage in the Āmer Śāstrabhaṇḍār,
A Digambara Manuscript Repository in Jaipur’.
International Journal of Jaina Studies 9, 3 (2013) 1-53.
All photos are by Tillo Detige.
Tillo Detige teaches at Ghent University, where he is
currently also finalizing his doctoral dissertation. His
research project on ‘Early Modern Digambara Jainism
in Western India: The Age of the Bhaṭṭārakas?’, funded
by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), led him to
the manuscript collections of Western and Central India.
4 A bhaṇḍāra of the Sūrataśākhā might be among the twelve collections
in Surat listed by Kasliwal (1967: 33-4), though most of these seem to
be Śvetāmbara.
39
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Klaus Bruhn
(22.5.1928 – 9.5.2016)
Peter Flügel
_________________________________________________________________________________
W
ith the passing of Klaus Bruhn Jaina Studies
has lost one of its most significant pillars and
innovators, who nurtured the field over a period of 65
years.1 Born in Hamburg as the only child of the Classical
Philologist and Gymnasium teacher Dr Christian Bruhn
(17.12.1884 – 2.2.1960) and his wife Ilse Bruhn (née
Gürich, 16.2.1897–1.6.1983),2 he served as an air force
auxiliary at the age of 16 during the bombing of Hamburg
in 1944-45. After the war, between 1947 and 1954,
he studied Indology, Philosophy and Theology (later:
Indo-European Studies) at the University of Hamburg.
His main teachers were Walther Schubring, who retired
in 1951, and Schubring’s former pupil and successor
Ludwig Alsdorf. Both attracted him to Jaina Studies,
which would become the focus of his professional life.
Ludwig Alsdorf, a specialist of Prakrit and Pali prosody
and Jaina legendary-historical literature, inspired the
theme of Bruhn’s doctoral dissertation on Jaina universal
history, Śīlānka’s Cauppaṇṇamahāpurisacariya: Ein
Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Jaina-Universalgeschichte
(Hamburg: De Gruyter, 1954). Having procured
photographs of two palm leaf and one paper manuscript
of Śīlānka’s Prakrit text from Muni Puṇyavijaya, Alsdorf
proposed that Bruhn undertake a comparison of the
Cauppaṇṇamahāpurisacariya
with
Hemacandra’s
Sanskrit Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra. Yet, other
versions of the universal history, especially the older
Āvaśyakaniryukti, needed to be taken into account as
well. An important contribution of Bruhn’s resulting
study to Indology was the systematic application
of the comparative method, focusing on structural
patterns, literary forms, and the question of the degree
of ‘combination’, ‘mixture’, ‘fusion’ or ‘duplication’
of traditions, which he analysed with the help of
conspectuses. Form analysis would remain one of the
principal concerns throughout Bruhn’s career.
In addition to the well-known pattern of ‘nested’
stories, Bruhn discovered the principle of ‘entanglement/
disentanglement’, which he found frequently employed
in early biographical texts, where life-stories are not
always narrated in their natural sequence, but split up
into parts, which then are re-assembled in different ways.
The main focus of his form analysis was the careful
distinction between the individual and the typical. The
challenge was to take account of the Jaina ‘inclination
for typification’, leading to ‘multiplication’ as well as to
‘division’, both resulting in the creation of ‘series’, such
as biographies representing features of the type besides
individual features, or of variations of themes. In the
course of his typological investigations, Bruhn developed
1 For K. Bruhn’s biography and bibliography see P. F. Krüger & G.
J. R. Mevissen. ‘Obituary: In Memory of Klaus Bruhn (1928-2016)’.
Berliner Indologische Studien 23 (2017) 7-14.
2 The younger brother of his father, Dr Hans Bruhn, was a Classicist
as well.
40
Figure 1. Klaus Bruhn and the family of Shri Ram Dayal Jain, Pūjārī
of the Jaina temples at Deogarh (Photo: Krishna Bruhn 1963).
the firm conviction that a single text cannot be properly
understood without considering parallel texts.3 Jaina
universal history as a whole and its parts must also be
seen in the light of non-Jaina parallels. Bruhn concluded
that Jainism had become the stereotypical ‘religion
without dogmatic development’ because it constrained its
own options by developing an increasingly systematised
philosophical framework, which in turn exerted an
influence on the narrative religious literature.
Another major outcome of the study was the analysis
of the structure and development of the biography of
Mahāvīra, presented in the context of the overall evolution
of the Tīrthaṅkara biography and the systematisation of
Jaina universal history. Because an English summary
of this pioneering work was published only as an
introduction to A. M. Bhojak’s subsequent full text edition
of the Cauppaṇṇamahāpurisacariya, a publication wellknown only to Prakrit specialists,4 Bruhn’s findings
on the history of the Mahāvīra biography, though of
fundamental importance for the history of religions,
are still not widely known, nor are they reflected in the
textbooks that appeared after Glasenapp (1925) and
Schubring (1935).
After his doctorate Bruhn spent three years at the
3 See W. B. Bollée & K. Bruhn ‘Prakrit Jñānabhāratī International
Awards 2005-2006 Ceremony: Addresses by Prof Dr Willem Bollée
and Prof Dr Klaus Bruhn’. Jaina Studies – Newsletter of the Centre of
Jaina Studies 4 (2009) 18-21, p. 20.
4 K. Bruhn, ‘Introduction to Śīlāṅka’s Cauppaṇṇamahāpurisacariya’.
Cauppaṇṇamahāpurisacariyam by Ācārya Śrī Śīlāṅka. Ed. Amritlal
Mohanlal Bhojak, 1-31. Ahmadabad: Prakrit Text Society, 1961.
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Deccan College in Pune, sponsored by a scholarship of
the Government of India, and in the village of Deogarh
(M.P.) to conduct fieldwork for his Habilitation on
the iconography of its ancient Digambara temples.
The topic had been inspired by U.P. Shah, whom he
had visited in Baroda in 1954 only to find out that the
former had already started a project on the links between
the Daśavaikālika-cūrṇi and Jaina iconography which
Alsdorf had suggested to Bruhn. On his return from
India, Bruhn was appointed as Alsdorf’s University
Assistant. After a fourth visit to Deogarh in 1963
(Figures 1 and 2), now together with his then recently
wedded wife Dr Krishna Bruhn (née Swarup), a
Humboldt Fellow whom he had met in Hamburg, the
work Die Jina-Bildnisse von Deogarh was finally
completed in 1964, and published in 1969 in an English
translation by Michael McDonald: The Jina-Images of
Deogarh (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969). For Bruhn, moving
from the study of post-canonical Jaina literature to the
history of Jaina iconography did not represent a major
change of orientation, because for him the study of Jaina
iconography was intrinsically connected with the study
of Jaina literature.
His second major work was not only an impeccable
documentation of important cultural relics, which
already in 1957 had begun to be destroyed by art
thieves and by renovation. It introduced an entirely new
approach to Indian Art History, giving account for the
unusual stylistic complexity of the evidence, namely, an
analytical vocabulary for the formal description of the
Deogarh material, based on the identification of concrete
iconographic and stylistic types through an exhaustive
classification of recurring elements and variations. The
method was an adaptation and elaboration of his earlier
approach to Jaina narrative literature. Because the ‘types
of types’, the analytical categories generated through the
identification of (partial) similarities of characteristics
between two or more ‘forms’, ‘systems’, ‘attributes’ and
‘form-principles’, differed from the terms found in old
‘art-theoretical’ Sanskrit texts, Bruhn’s innovative chapter
on method was entirely ignored by reviewers in Indian
Art History, and found few followers beyond the circle
of his immediate disciples. The same can be said of his
later refinements of the method of concrete description,
introducing ‘frame-’ and ‘slot-filler’ analysis, etc., in a
series of pioneering articles on ‘Distinction in Indian
Iconography’ (1960), ‘Wiederholung in der indischen
Ikonographie’ (1973), ‘The Identification of Jina Images’
(1985), ‘The Analysis of Jina Images’ (1986), ‘The
Grammar of Jina Iconography I & II’ (1995, 2000),
‘Early Jaina Iconography (an Overview)’ (2010), and
works on Jaina Miniature Paintings from Western India
(2004, 2005, 2006, 2010), amongst others. Bruhn’s work
on Jaina iconography was far ahead of its time and will
almost certainly be re-discovered by a new generation of
scholars.
In 1965, the Freie Universität Berlin (FU-Berlin)
appointed Bruhn as a temporary replacement for
Schubring’s disciple Frank-Richard Hamm (1920-1973),
Figure 2. Klaus Bruhn and children of Deogarh (Photo: Krishna Bruhn
1963).
and in 1966 as his successor to the Chair for Indology at the
Institute of Indian Philology and Art History, a position
he held until his retirement in 1991. As Chair, Bruhn
initiated important research collaborations, particularly
in Jaina Studies. In the years 1968-76 he received
successive grants from the German Research Foundation
(DFG) for the creation of a concordance of verses of the
vast but little-studied early Jaina exegetical literature,
the Niryuktis and Bhāṣyas and related (Digambara)
texts. The aim was to trace parallels, to find out to what
extent these largely anonymous, heterogeneous works
are independent texts, and as a tool for the creation of
critical editions and sample studies of works such as the
Āvaśyakaniryukti, which Ernst Leumann had begun to
investigate in the 19th century. The project Erstellung
einer Konkordanz zur Jaina-Literatur was completed
in Berlin together with Chandrabhāl B. Tripaṭhī and
Bansidhar Bhatt.5
Work was conducted in a pragmatic spirit. Hence, the
Sthānakavāsī Muni Phūlcand’s (Pupphabhikkhu) edition
of the Siddhānta was utilised, because at the time it was
the only easily available complete imprint of the primary
sources, despite the fact that all references to temples
had been eliminated by the editor. First, all texts were
photocopied, then individual verses cut out, glued on
individual punch cards, and finally cross-referenced. The
original plan to use computers was abandoned as far as
possible ‘because only the editors themselves could cope
with the textual criticism of the uncommonly numerous
variant readings’.6 The resulting alphabetically structured
punch-card-catalogue was presented by Bruhn to visitors
5 Bruhn, K. & C. Tripathi. ‘Jaina Concordance and Bhāṣya
Concordance’. Beiträge zur Indienforschung. Ernst Waldschmidt zum
80. Geburtstag gewidmet. Hg. H.Härtel, 67-80. Berlin: Museum für
Indische Kunst, 1977.
6 E. Strandberg, ‘Lexicography of Middle-Indo-Aryan’. Wörterbücher
- Dictionaries - Dictionnaires: Ein Internationales Handbuch zur
Lexikographie. Ed. F. J. Hausmann, O. Reichmann, H. E. Wiegland, L.
Zgusta. Vol. 3, 2497-2507. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1991, p. 2503.
41
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Figure 3. Punch-Cards of the Berliner-Konkordanz at the British Library. (Photo: Peter Flügel 7.2.2017)
as the showpiece of the Institute. After the tragic closure
of the Institute in 2008, and hence the end of Indology
in Berlin for the foreseeable future, the eight cabinets,
containing drawers holding the cards of some 50,000
cross-referenced verses, were in 2009 bestowed by
Bruhn to the British Library, because the authorities of
the FU-Berlin had refused to host them.7 (Figure 3)
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bruhn published important
research articles related to the Jaina-Concordance. Most
significant were his two expansive essays ‘ĀvaśyakaStudies I’ (1981) and ‘Repetition in Jaina Narrative
Literature’ (1983), followed by two kindred works on
‘Das Kanonproblem bei den Jainas’ and ‘Soteriology in
Early Jainism’ (1987). Using the punch cards as tools for
‘micro-studies’ to good effect, Bruhn also produced ‘The
Kaṣāya Concept in Jaina Soteriology’ (1992), and ‘The
Concept of Māna (Pride) in Jaina Dogmatics’ (1993).
Yet, he never mustered ‘the courage’, he later wrote,
to take up the work on the Āvaśyaka-literature where
Leumann had left it in 1900, despite its significance for
Jaina universal history, philosophy, and ritual.8 Bruhn
officially terminated his own investigations of the old
exegetical literature with ‘Ludwig Alsdorf's Studies in
the Āryā’ (1996) and finally with the ‘Bibliography of
Studies Connected with the Āvaśyaka-Commentaries’
(1998).
Bruhn collaborated extensively with other scholars
and inspired much research in Jaina Studies and beyond.
With Herbert Härtel he started the series Indologia
7 On recommendation of the present writer, Michael O’Keefe, Head of
South Asia Collections of the British Library, secured the preservation
of this important research tool.
8 Bollée & Bruhn (2009: 21).
42
Berolinensis in 1969, which published five outstanding
doctoral dissertations and habilitations in Indology
and Art History at the FU-Berlin, the last two of them
in Jaina Studies (M. Horstmann 1969, P. Werner 1972,
M. Pfeiffer 1972, C. Tripathi 1975, B. Bhatt 1978). In
1985, the first volume of the Berliner Indologische
Studien (BIS) appeared, a journal established by
Bruhn and his colleagues, in the name of the Institute
of Indian Philology and Art History, to facilitate swift
publication of essays, some of which would not easily
fit into existing Indological or Art Historical journals.
Effectively, BIS was his own publication series, and was
run with the help of his assistants. Bruhn dedicated an
extraordinary amount of time and effort to the editing
of the Indologia Berolinensis and on the contributions
to BIS, which he tended to discuss almost line by line
with authors in extensive phone calls. The current culture
of publishing quickly and point-scoring was not on his
radar. From 2007 he officially signed on as editor of BIS
together with Gerd J. R. Mevissen, not least, because
from this time onward the publication was completely
self-financed. In this way its continuity was secured after
the closure of the Institute in 2008.
More than any other scholar in the field of Jaina
Studies, and arguably in Indology and Indian Art History
in general, Bruhn wrote in a methodologically selfreflective way. Though he rejected abstract theorising
in favour of detailed formal description, he identified
the problem of (provisional) reduction of complexity
as one of the main tasks of Jaina Studies, and became
increasingly concerned with questions of delineating
viable research strategies for the field as a whole. Though
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
fiercely defensive of the historical-philological method
of Classical Indology, compared to the canon-oriented
approach favoured in the Study of Religions, and the
formalistic approaches of Linguistics or the Social
Sciences, he began to advocate ‘experimental learning’
and methodological pluralism, while increasingly
appreciating the advantages of collaborative, even
interdisciplinary approaches for a comprehensive
investigation of the Jaina materials. At the same time,
he privileged micro-studies of strategically selected
phenomena, which he called Probebohrungen, in his
own case mainly focussing on Jaina ethics. In order to
give ‘Jaina Studies’ a sound methodological foundation,
and to relate macro- and micro-research strategies in
non-arbitrary ways, he devised the concept of ‘Sectional
Studies’ for Jainology (1991, 1993). The basic idea was
to pragmatically divide a ‘frame subject’ such as ‘Jainism’
into thematic sub-subjects or ‘sections’, concrete or
abstract, to be studied to the required depth, step by
step. This was done by ‘segmentation’ of given data, a
whole work or group of works, into manageable portions,
leading to viable research-schemes. In Bruhn’s view, only
the conscious segmentation of the material, involving
the construction of classifications and concrete models,
permitted the systematic study of different aspects of (for
instance) Jaina culture in a methodologically controlled
way, and significantly expanded analytical possibilities,
compared to the approaches of Classical Indology or the
Study of Religions. Although his proposed tabulations
seemed rather tedious and artificial to many scholars,
hence ‘typically German’, for the first time in the field,
the usually unarticulated decisions that have to be taken
in the actual process of research were explicated and laid
open for discussion.
Notable outcomes of Bruhn’s work on the section
‘Jaina Ethics’, besides an online translation of ‘Five
Vows and Six Avashyakas: The Fundamentals of Jaina
Ethics’ (1997-8), were three magisterial articles, which
should be required reading for any university course on
Jainism: the belatedly published essay ‘Die Ahiṃsā in der
Ethik des Jaina-Autors Amṛtacandra’ (2007), ‘Ācārāṅga
Studies’ (2004-5), and his truly pioneering work on ‘The
Mahāvratas in Early Jainism’ (2003). His study on Jaina
ethics concluded with ‘Two Overviews [I. Structure of
Jainism (sects and schools); II. Terms in Jaina ethics (the
canon)]’ (BIS 2012).
Professor Klaus Bruhn was a scholar of rare acumen,
dedication and integrity, an explorer in the true sense of
the term. Always dissatisfied with his own considerable
knowledge, and the very slow advances in his field of
study, he never sat comfortably on a task accomplished
or a halfway solution reached. He seemed to experience
a sense of despair in the face of the overwhelming
mass of yet unstudied sources, which he had to leave
behind to new generations of researchers. His research
articles reflect this even more than his second book, on
Deogarh, which he described as an ‘inventory’ instead
of a ‘monograph’. Rather than offering translations
or a coherent argument on a selected point of interest,
his publications always sought to address entire fields
of complex facts, and to open up new questions for
future investigations. They were deliberately openended conspectuses, providing sometimes hard to
ingest mixtures of highly detailed evidences and playful
experiments with new interpretative perspectives. The
intended readership of these avant-garde treatises was
clearly limited. Occasionally, Bruhn seemed to speak
mainly to himself when he noted changes in his views
in response to new publications in the field, which he
extensively commented upon. Despite having published
mainly in English, the work of Klaus Bruhn received
less attention than it deserved, principally because
of its complexity and style. Reviewers showed little
understanding of his innovations. However, Bruhn’s
self-confidence and enthusiasm for Jaina Studies helped
him cope with his splendid isolation at the apex of the
field.
Bruhn was by no means an ivory-tower academic.
He was the founding co-chair of the Deutsch-Indische
Gesellschaft Berlin, which was established in 1971, and
regularly interacted with the local Indian communities.
He also engaged critically, and publicly, with some of
the anti-liberal excesses of the reform agenda of the
radical German student movement of the 1960s and
1970s, including those of the ‘Red Cell Indology’ at
the FU-Berlin, which he tolerated.9 His intellectual
response was the short work Die zweite Reform (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1973), which he composed together with
the Berlin musicologist Rudolph Stephan, offering
a ‘phenomenology of progressiveness’, a discourse
analysis of the reductive asymmetric binary oppositions
which were frequently used by ‘progressives’ (and antiprogressives) to provide easy answers, at the cost of
‘explosions of synonyms’. The small tractatus put forth
the case for the preservation of the ‘small disciplines’
in the Humanities and for academic freedom, which in
the view of the authors was endangered by quantitative
reduction, instrumentalisation by the (Marxist) social
sciences, and the so-called second reform, that is, the
re-definition of the curriculum in the name of student
participation and emancipation. At the same time,
the authors advocated for ‘impartiality vis-à-vis the
new possibilities’ that were opened by the loosening
of ossified structures and the introduction of new
methodologies. Better than in any of his methodological
articles, sometimes composed in an extremely condensed
telegram style, the credo of Bruhn’s scholarly approach
is expressed here: not reducing but expanding analytical
possibilities, generating further insight rather than settling
for final truths, looking at a chosen phenomenon from as
many perspectives as are fruitful and necessary. In one of
his articles he characterised himself with the help of an
expression of A. O. Lovejoy as ‘habitually sensible of the
general complexity of things’.
Throughout his life Bruhn had always been
9 K. Bruhn, ‘Das Institut für Indische Philologie und Kunstgeschichte’.
Die Altertums- und Kunstwissenschaften an der Freien Universität
Berlin. Ed. K. Kubicki & S. Lönnendonker, 39-49. Göttingen: V&R,
2015, p. 40.
43
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Figure 4. Excerpt from ‘Indische Geographie’ (1938), written by Bruhn at the age of ten. In response to the author’s query, he related that his fascination
with India had been awakened when he was a boy by adventure novels set in the Subcontinent (Institute of Ethnology, FU-Berlin 21.11.1998). His
wife Krishna Bruhn reported on 31.1.2017 that their daughters Malini Bruhn and Nandini Bruhn unexpectedly found in his literary estate four
book manuscripts which their father had written as a boy: ‘Walter in Indien’ (1937), ‘Indische Geographie’ (1938), ‘Eine kurze Schilderung der
‘Indischen Geschichte und der Freiheitsbestrebungen der Inder’ (1941), and ‘Gedanken zur Indischen Kunst’ (1942). In the manuscript of 1938,
he listed the books that had influenced him: first of all William Quindt’s Peters Dschungelferien: Was ein deutscher Junge in den Wäldern Indiens
erlebte (Stuttgart 1934) and Maximilian Kern’s Im Labyrinth des Ganges (Stuttgart 1907), followed by Dhan Gopal Mukerdschi’s (Mukherji) Am
Rande des Dschungels [Hari, the Jungle Lad] (Berlin 1927), and Kari, der Elefant [Kari, the Elephant] (Frankfurt 1929), travel literature such as Otto
E. Ehlers’s An indischen Fürstenhöfen (Berlin 1894), as well as Emil Schlagintweit’s Indien in Wort und Bild (Leipzig 1880-81) and other non-fiction
works.
enthusiastic about matters Indian. (Figure 4) He also
supported non-academic initiatives and marginal figures
who produced valuable work. Likely he regarded himself
sometimes as a fringe figure as well, because he straddled
disciplinary boundaries and published articles that did
not easily fit in the traditional Indological format. Bruhn
did not leave any extensive translations, but rather case
studies and specimens, focused on comparative analysis
of textual and iconographic materials, with indications
even for desirable social scientific research. For his
teachers W. Schubring and L. Alsdorf he published three
important edited volumes: Schubring’s mildly overedited Kleine Schriften (1977), Studien zum Jainismus
und Buddhismus: Gedenkschrift für Ludwig Alsdorf
(1981), and, with Magdalene Duckwitz and Albrecht
Wezler, Ludwig Alsdorf and Indian Studies (1990),
while he himself was presented with a Festschrift with
contributions from disciples, friends and colleagues,
edited by Nalini Balbir and Joachim K. Bautze (1994).
In 2006 Bruhn was awarded the Prakrit Jñānabhāratī
International Award by the National Institute of Prakrit
44
Studies and Research at Śravaṇabeḷagoḷa.10 He donated
the prize money to a children's hospital in India and to
a charity benefitting impoverished women and children
around the world. His last book, The Predicament of
Women in Ancient India, was published both online and
in print in 2008.11
Klaus Bruhn was an example to us all. In his very
unique ways he represented in the best possible sense
the cultural type associated with the city of Hamburg:
modest, restrained, upright, learned, open minded, and
good humoured. The words of one of his colleagues at
the FU-Berlin characterise him very well: Klaus Bruhn
was ein feiner Mensch.
10 See Bollée & Bruhn (2009).
11 See his personal webpage: www.klaus-bruhn.de/pageID_4920145.
html
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Madhusudan Amilal Dhaky
(31.7.1927 – 29.7.2016)
Maruti Nandan Tiwari
_________________________________________________________________________________
P
rofessor M.A. Dhaky, who immortalized Indian
temple architecture, passed away after brief illness
at his residence in Ahmedabad on 29 July 2016. With
his demise we have lost one of the greatest scholars of
Indology, loved and respected both by senior and young
scholars in India and in other parts of the world.
Dhaky was born on 31 July 1927 into a Svetambara
Jaina family in Dhank, village of Porbandar in Gujarat.
His father, Sri Amilala Jivanbhai Dhaky, was a
horticulture officer. He received his surname Dhaky from
his native village Dhank. After completing his primary
and secondary education at Porbandar, Dhaky graduated
in Geology and Chemistry from Ferguson College, Pune,
affiliated to the University of Bombay, in 1948. It is
rather surprising that being a science graduate, Dhaky
independently cultivated an expertise in the field of
Indological studies, especially Archaeology, Art History
and Prakrit.1
In 1951 Dhaky established an Archaeology Research
Group in Porbandar and started writing on Solańki art
and architecture. He ultimately joined Junagarh Museum
as its Curator and Archaeological Officer. This was the
turning point of his life. During this period he met his
mentor Professor B. Subbarao and joined him during his
excavations at Patan in Gujarat. After stepping into the
field of Indian Architecture, Art History and Nirgrantha
Studies, Dhaky followed the path shown by three great
scholars of Indian sculpture, architecture and painting
namely, V. S. Agrawala, C. Sivaramamurti and Moti
Chandra.2 Moti Chandra was aware of the academic
potentials of young Dhaky and brought him to the
American Academy of Banaras (which subsequently
became the American Institute of Indian Studies and
shifted from Varanasi to Gurgaon). The writings of Moti
Chandra on Indian Art and Culture particularly Kāśī
Kā Ītihāsa inspired Dhaky to adopt a holistic approach,
and the writings of C. Sivaramamurti inspired him to
make full use of original texts in the study of Indian
Art. In Varanasi he also came into contact with V. S.
Agrawala. Dhaky was greatly influenced by the writings
of Agrawala, ranging from Vedic-Puranic to other texts
(Matsya-purāņa, Harşa-carita) and early Indian Art.
Under this influence and guidance he wrote his book
The Vyāla Figures on the Mediaeval Temples of India
in 1965.
In 1966 Dhaky joined the American Institute of
Indian Studies (AIIS), Gurgaon (Haryana), and became
its Research Director in 1976. Although he held no
postgraduate degrees, on the basis of his scholarship
1 Some of the information contained herein was provided by Professor
Dhaky in an interview conducted in my presence by Dr. Shivakant
Bajpai of the Archaeological Survey of India at his residence in
Ahmedabad on 20 November 2008 (published in the magazine Kalaśa).
2 This was expressed by Prof. Dhaky in a personal interview with the
present author.
M.A. Dhaky in the interior of the Navalakha temple, Ghumli, Gujarat.
Photographed in 1952. Photograph courtesy Parul Pandya Dhar.
he was appointed by the L D Institute of Ahmedabad
as Professor of Indian Art and Archaeology in 1996.3
Dhaky’s expertise was recognized globally and he acted
as supervisor and adviser for doctoral theses on Indian
Art and Architecture at Universities in India, London and
Berlin.
Dhaky retired in 1996 but stayed on in Gurgaon from
1996 to 2005 as Emeritus Director. From 2005 he lived
in Ahmedabad.
Prof. Dhaky’s works on architecture saw earlymedieval and medieval Indian temple architecture from a
unique lens, because he brought fresh methodologies to
his analysis. For instance, he categorized Western Indian
Temple Architecture into Mahā-Māru, Mahā-Gurjara
and Mārugurjara, the latter being an amalgamation of
the former two schools. More importantly, he sought to
bring to the study of architecture an approach that was
3 See: Dave, Hemant. “Bibliography of M. A. Dhaky’s Publications.”
Temple Architecture and Imagery of South and Southeast Asia.
Prasādhanidhi: Papers Presented to Professor M. A. Dhaky. Foreword
by Kapila Vatsyayan. In cooperation with Indian Art History Congress
and Devangana Desai. Edited by Parul Pandya Dhar & Gerd J. R.
Mevissen, lix-lxxii. New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2016.
45
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
M.A. Dhaky & Werner Menski at the SOAS Workshop on Jainism and
Society (Photo: P. Flügel 13.3.2006)
not connected to dynastic histories. He saw architecture
from an aesthetic viewpoint as well.
Dhaky wrote in English, Gujarati and Hindi with
equal command and fluency. In addition to having edited
four out of fourteen volumes in the Encyclopaedia of
Indian Temple Architecture, his publications include
eleven books and over three hundred research articles.
The clarity, accuracy and perfection in his writings
on Indian monuments, combined with his knowledge
of architecture and sculpture, made Dhaky truly an
embodiment of the god of architecture (vāstu-puruşa).
His books on Chronology of Solańkī Temples of Gujarat
(1961), The Ceilings in the Temples of Gujarat (1963),
The Embroidery and Beadwork of Kutch and Saurashtra
(1966), Bhāratīya Durga-Vidhāna (1971), The Temples
of Kumbhāriyā (2001), The Indian Temple Traceries
(2005), and Studies in Nirgrantha Art and Architecture
(2012) not only continue to inspire scholars of Indian art
but also serve as models for the study of Indian temples
in terms of the architectural framework and also the
symbolic, religious, aesthetic and social contexts.
Of particular note is his publication on Indian Temple
Traceries. This was a groundbreaking monograph in
its extensive treatment of the subject of Indian temple
traceries (jālas or grilles) together with an indepth
discussion in light of relevant medieval Vāstuśāstra
passages in Sanskrit. Besides identification, classification
and description of the different grille types as well as
their forms, features and ornaments, it investigates their
purpose and relationship with the environment as well
as their functional engagement with the building of
which each example is an integral part. It likewise traces
the origin with its earliest incidences together with the
development, of Indian grilles.
Overall, Dhaky always evinced deep admiration
for the aesthetic and conceptual quality of ancient and
mediaeval South and South-East Asian monuments.
Some of his writings bring the South-East Asian regions
in dialogue with Indian expressions and a few even
primarily on South-East Asian Art.
He also wrote on the history and chronology of ancient
and medieval Jaina literature (including the Āgamas,
their commentaries and ancient and medieval hymns)
as well as determined the dates of the famous authors
46
of Nirgrantha (Jaina) texts. He was an erudite scholar
of Prakrit literature, for which the Prākŗt Jñānabhāratī
Award was bestowed to him in 1993. Some of his
most significant contributions pertain to Jaina ācāryas
Bhadrabāhu, Umāsvāti, and Kundakunda.
Professor Dhaky was a multi-talented genius with a
deep understanding of aesthetics, Jaina Philosophy and
Metaphysics, Prakrit, Jaina Hymnology, Indian classical
music (both North Indian and Carnatic), horticulture,
gemology and embroidery. He contributed immensely to
the understanding of different aspects of Indian art and
architecture, including Jainism and Jaina art. He was the
recipient of several gold and silver medals, including the
Campbell Memorial Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society
of Mumbai, the R. C. Parikh Gold Medal of the Gujarat
Itihas Parishad, Ahmedabad, and the Hemacandrācārya
Award from the Jaswanta Dharmarth Trust Delhi. For
his long and invaluable contributions to Indian Art and
Culture and Jaina Studies he was awarded prestigious
Padma Bhūṣaņa — National Award by the President of
India in 2010.
Prāsādanidhi, the Felicitation Volume of Prof. M.
A. Dhaky (Editors: Parul Pandya Dhar & Gerd J. R.
Mevissen) was published in 2016. Its contributions by
both foreign and Indian scholars reveal how dear he was
to the field of Indian Art History. The point of satisfaction
is that the Felicitation Volume could be published in his
lifetime.
Dhaky was humble and unassuming but in academic
matters he was firm and clear. He was a man of commitment
and knew how to nurture and educate a young scholar.
He used to spend hours discussing academic issues, and
editing research papers of upcoming scholars. [4] He
stressed the significance of using the standard technical
vocabulary in Sanskrit and also the information we find
in inscriptions.
Dhaky combined profound scholarship with
extraordinary human qualities, including a fine sense of
humour. His wife Śrīmatī Gītāben was in a true sense his
best friend. A Jaina by faith, he was free from all narrow
sectarian prejudices. The demise of Professor M.A.
Dhaky is a great loss felt by many people the world over.
He will always live with us in his yaśaḥ-śarīra, or body
of glory. I offer my respectful obeisance to the memory
of this Great Soul.
Maruti Nandan Tiwari is Emeritus Professor at the
Department of History of Art, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi-221005 (India).
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Bansidhar Bhatt
(1.6.1929 – 4.9.2016)
Kornelius Krümpelmann
_________________________________________________________________________________
W
ith the passing away of Professor Bansidhar Bhatt,
who was born on 1 June 1929 in Veda (Gujarat)
and died on 4 September 2016 in Jaipur (Rajasthan),
the international community of Indologists has lost a
renowned scholar and a highly esteemed colleague.
Already in his student days Bhatt’s great talent and
unflinching dedication to his studies were honoured
with university grants and scholarships in India and
Germany. To mention only two: the Vedānta Prize (1955,
University of Gujarat) and the Doctoral Scholarship
(Graduiertenförderung, 1971-1974, Freie Universität
Berlin). Honours followed throughout his career,
for example the International Pārvatī Jaina Award
(1984, Punjab) and the B. A. Shah Gold Medal (1998,
Ahmedabad).
After his matriculation at the University of Bombay
in 1946, Bhatt studied classical and modern languages
and literature of India. In 1952 he acquired a bachelor’s
degree and in 1955 a master’s degree. From 1957 until
1969 he was employed as Lecturer of Sanskrit at L.
D. Arts College in Ahmedabad and at the School of
Languages at the University of Gujarat.
It was a great and decisive step in his life when in 1969
he became a student at the Institut für Indische Philologie
und Kunstgeschichte at the Freie Universität Berlin
(financed by the India Foundation Loan Scholarship,
Pune; he was one among the seven India-wide selected
candidates for higher studies abroad). There he studied
Sanskrit and Prakrit under Klaus Bruhn, Pali under
Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow, Indian art history under Herbert
Härtel, and Veda and Indo-Iranian studies under Bernfried
Schlerath. In 1976 he passed the doctoral examination
in Indian philology, Indian art history and Indonesian
(Bahasa Indonesia). For his dissertation The Canonical
Nikṣepa. Studies in Jaina Dialectics, published in 1977,
Bhatt was awarded the summa cum laude degree.
In July 1976 he returned to India and was nominated
Government of India Pool Officer for two years. He
continued to work in his chosen scientific field at the
Centre for Jaina Studies at the University of Rajasthan
in Jaipur. In July 1978 he was appointed Professor
(Mahāvīra Chair for Jaina Studies) at the Punjabi
University in Patiala.
From 1 April 1985 until his retirement on 31 July 1995
he worked as Lector (Studienrat im Hochschuldienst)
for Hindi and Gujarati at the Institut für Indologie at
the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. In
addition to his teaching, he tirelessly continued his Jaina
studies and published numerous essays. Early in 2010
his health started to deteriorate. When his beloved wife
Vasudhaben, who had always supported his work, died in
Münster on 28 November 2012, he returned to his family
in India. In his last years his research focused on the
Bansidhar Bhatt with the manuscript of his last book at his home in
Münster (Photo: P. Flügel 2.2.2013)
question of the historicity of the 23rd Jina Pārśvanātha.
Death came to him shortly after the completion of this
work.
It was his teacher Klaus Bruhn (1928-2016), who led
Bhatt on the path of Jaina Studies. Guided by his guru, he
found his ultimate scientific orientation: the exploration
of the Āgama texts of the Jainas and their commentaries.
He adopted the historical-critical method and investigated
the ancient texts thoroughly and comprehensively, both
in terms of their historical origins and development.
Due to his most accurate analysis of these extensive
and difficult to read text materials — especially the socalled Āvaśyaka corpus — he gained new and significant
insights into the field of Jaina religion and philosophy.
In his book on the canonical nikṣepa, an interpretive
technique used by Jaina ācāryas to discuss a subject or a
word from different angles as a means of explaining the
sacred scriptures to pupils, Bhatt collected and analysed
almost all relevant material found in the old sacred texts
of the Jainas, especially in the Bhagavatī, Jīvābhigama,
and Prajñāpanā. His classification of the different forms
of the nikṣepa and related phenomena, and his discussion
47
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
of their historical development, was a great step to a
proper understanding of Jaina scholastic methodology.
Another significant contribution to the history of
Jainism is his work on the Jina Pārśvanātha (Bhatt
2017), the 23rd Tīrthaṅkara, who according to Jaina
tradition lived about 250 years before Mahāvīra, the 24th
Tīrthaṅkara and contemporary of the Buddha (Siddhārtha
Gautama). Bhatt studied minutely the canonical texts
and their commentaries and came to the conclusion that
Pārśvanātha is not a historical figure, as some Indian and
Western scholars still argue today, but a later invention to
explain differences in the mode of asceticism emerging
from a reform movement that took place in Jainism in the
3rd or 2nd century BCE.
Bhatt was a humble and friendly person, who loved
to help his students and colleagues with patience and
passionate commitment. Devoted to work and duty,
he lived a very secluded and modest life. But when it
came to scholarship, he knew no compromises. The
search for truth stood above everything else. His radical
attitude to any kind of interference or restriction of
academic freedom led to his rejection of many offers of
employment from privately financed institutions in the
USA and India. He also did not shy away from public
debates with Indian colleagues, who, biased by their
religious beliefs, criticized his findings without evidencebased arguments.
All visitors to his home in Münster were enthusiastic
about his ginger tea and the snacks that his wife had
prepared. And when he offered somebody a candy in the
library of the Institute, with an encouraging smile and
the words “für die gute Laune” (for the good mood), this
always brought about the intended effect.
He will certainly be very much missed by his colleagues,
students and friends.
Kornelius Krümpelmann holds a doctorate from the
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Germany),
and was lecturer of Sanskrit and Prakrit at the
Department of Indology and Buddhist Studies, GeorgAugust-Universität Göttingen (Germany). He is currently
Research Assistant at SOAS (London) in the project
Jaina Prosopography: Monastic Lineages, Networks and
Patronage.
Bansidhar Bhatt
Main Publications in English
‘Vyavahāra-naya and Niścaya-naya in Kundakunda’s
works.’ ZDMG, Supplement II 18. Deutscher
Orientalistentag, Lübeck 1972, Hrsg. Wolfgang Voigt
(1974) 279-291.
The Canonical Nikṣepa: Studies in Jaina Dialectics.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977 (Indologia Berolinensis 5).
‘Ācāra-cūlās and Niryukti. Studies I.’ Indologica
Taurinensia XIV (1987-88) 95-115.
‘The concept of the Self and Liberation in Early
Jaina Āgamas.’ Self and Consciousness. Indian
Interpretation. Ed. by Augustine Thottakara. Centre
for Indian and Inter-religious Studies (Rome).
Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 1989, pp. 132172.
‘Ācāra-cūlās and -Niryukti. Studies II (MahāvīraBiography).’ Jain Studies in honour of Jozef Deleu.
Ed. by Rudy Smet and Kenji Watanabe. Tokyo: Honno-Tomosha, 1993, pp. 85-121.
‘On the Epithet: nāṭaka for the Samayasāra of
Kundakunda.’ Jainism and Prakrit in Ancient and
Medieval India: Essays for Prof. Jagdish Chandra
Jain. Ed. by Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya, 431-462.
New Delhi: Manohar, 1994.
‘Twelve Aṇuvekkhās in Early Jainism.’ Festschrift
Klaus Bruhn zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres
dargebracht von Schülern, Freunden und Kollegen.
Ed. by Nalini Balbir and Joachim K. Bautze. Reinbek:
Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen, 1994,
pp. 171-193.
‘Early Jainism and Śaivism: Their Interaction and
Counteraction.’ Sambodhi XXXV (2012) 12-32.
Early Sources of the Jaina Tradition: A Critical Survey
of Sources Revealing Pārśva the 23rd Tīrthaṅkara
as a Legendary Figure. London: Routledge, 2017
(Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies 7).
[Many of Prof. Bhatt’s articles written in English
are reprinted in Jñāna-Gangotrī. Collected research
articles of Prof. Dr. Bansidhar Bhatt. Ed. by Jitendra
B. Shah. Shresthi Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi
(Ahmedabad). Volume 6. Ahmedabad 2005.]
48
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Satya Ranjan Banerjee
(4.6.1928 – 10.12.2016)
Jagat Ram Bhattacharyya
_________________________________________________________________________________
P
rofessor Satya Ranjan Banerjee was born in
Umedpur, a village in the Faridpur District of the
Dhaka division (now in Bangladesh). At a very early
stage of life he came to Calcutta (Kolkata) and settled
there with his family and started his school education.
After earning his bachelor’s degree with honours in
Sanskrit from the University of Calcutta in 1952,
Banerjee gained a master’s degree in Sanskrit with
specialisation in Prakrit, including Pāli, Apabhraṃśa and
Inscriptional Prakrits in 1954. He completed a second
master’s degree at the same university in Comparative
Philology at the Department of Linguistics where he
studied and wrote his dissertation on Indo-European
languages, including Avestan, Old Persian and Greek.
His first PhD was from the Department of Comparative
Philology, Calcutta University in 1964, on the Eastern
School of Prakrit Grammarians. He completed a second
PhD on A Comparative Study of the Greek and Indian
Perfect Tenses with Special Reference to Homeric Greek
at the University of Edinburgh in 1972. Before his
doctoral research at University of Edinburgh, Banerjee
studied Modern Linguistics: Descriptive, Structural and
Generative-Transformational Linguistics along with
Indo-European Philology. He was also recognized as a
scholar of Sanskrit in the traditional Indian system and
earned the title of Madhyamā in Pāṇinian grammar and
also in Kāvya literature from the Board of the Sanskrit
Association, Government of West Bengal. He received
the honour of Prākṛta Vidyā-Maṇīṣī from Jain Vishva
Bharati, Ladnun in 1990 and a D. Litt. (Honoris causa)
from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata in 2010.
At the early stage of his professional life Banerjee
taught Sanskrit in local Sanskrit colleges and at the
Universities of Calcutta and Jadavpur. Later, in 1970–72,
he taught Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh and at
the School of African and Oriental Studies, University
of London. In 1972–75 he also taught at the Institute of
Languages in London. With extensive teaching experience
and knowledge of western pedagogical methodology to
his credit Banerjee joined the faculty of the Department
of Linguistics at the University of Calcutta, where he
taught from 1975–98. Apart from his regular teaching in
Linguistics in other departments he also taught subjects
such as Sanskrit, Bengali and French.
In 1978 he spent a year as a visiting Professor at
the Center for South Asia, University of WisconsinMadison, USA. He delivered numerous invited lectures
and attended many academic gatherings, not only at
Indian universities, but also abroad, frequently attending
international conferences and delivering lectures at
many universities in Europe, North America and Latin
America. In 1980 he was invited as a fellow by the Swiss
National Foundation for Scientific Research to work on
an Indo-Greek Lexicon at Bern, Swizerland and Athens,
Greece.
S.R. Banerjee at the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkatta (Photo:
P. Flügel 19.11.2007)
During his career, Banerjee authored more than
80 books and over 400 research articles, published
in India and abroad. His works include: The Eastern
School of Prakrit Grammarians (1977), An edition of
Kramadīśvara’s Prākṛtādhyāya (1980), Indo-European
Tense and Aspect in Greek and Sanskrit (1983),
Mṛcchakaṭika or the Toy-Cart of King Śūdraka – A Study
(1984), A Handbook of Sanskrit Philology (1987, 2000),
and Narrative Tales in Jaina Literature (2008). He also
contributed to edited volumes with articles such as: ‘An
Edition of the Paspaśā-āhnika of Patañjali’s Mahābhāṣya’
(1998), ‘Albrecht Weber’s Sacred Literatures of the Jainas’
(co-authored with G. Lalwani) (1999), ‘The Aṣṭādhyāyī
of Pāṇini’ (2003), ‘The Siddhānta-kaumudī of Bhaṭṭoji
Dīkṣita’ (2005), ‘Mārkaṇçeya’s Prākṛta-sarvasva’ (2007),
and ‘Abhidhāna-cintāmaṇi of Hemacandra’ (2010). A
number of books were in preparation, and several books
are still in press: A Handbook of the New Indo-Aryan
Philology, Prakrit Textual Criticism, A Handbook of
Prakrit Grammar, Prakrit Chrestomathy, and Linguistic
Studies in Sanskrit Grammar.
Banerjee's research articles covered almost all
disciplines of Indological Studies, but his prime focus
was on language and grammar. He was the recipient of
many academic awards, including Ācārya Vidyāsāgar
Sāhitya Puraskār, 1982; Ācārya Sukumar Sen Puraskār,
49
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
1998; and Ācārya Hemacandrasūri Puraskār, 2000. He
was awarded the Certificate of Honour by the Honourable
President of India, 2002; became Associate Member of
the Centre of Jaina Studies at SOAS, 2006; received
the Ācārya Tulsī Prakrit Puraskār, 2006; and the Prakrit
Jñānabhāratī Puraskār in 2016.
Banerjee often recalled the days of his student-life
and shared his memories with his students. He would
mention the names of professors to whom he was forever
indebted. Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, Professor
Kshitish Chandra Chatterjee and Professor Prabhat
Mukherjee were his main sources of inspiration, but most
frequently he quoted the name of Prabhat Mukherjee. He
was very also much influenced by A.N. Upadhye and
Hiralal Jain in the fields of Prakrit and Jaina Studies.
Banerjee was popularly known as ‘Sir’ to all pupils.
He possessed a great understanding students’ psychology.
In his lectures he emphasized vital points just as they wre
were about to rise in the mind of the students. A bachelor
in his personal life, he dedicated his whole life to teaching
and research. A detailed record of his life and works has
been preserved in two Festschriften: Studia Indologica
and Indological Essays edited by his students and friends
in 2007 and 2014 respectively. Scholars from India and
abroad contributed articles to these volumes.
For some years, due to his age, Banerjee’s movement
was restricted, and he attended academic programmes
only locally. He was quite active in writing even at the
last stage of his life. He left the mundane world with
a smiling face after having made a major contribution
to academic scholarship. He will live on forever in the
hearts of students of Indology.
Jagat Ram Bhattacharyya is Professor at the Department
of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan,
West Bengal.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
JAIN ART FUND
Research and Travel Grants
The Victoria and Albert Museum Jain Art Fund
was created as a result of the exhibition ‘The
Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India’ (199496), jointly organised by the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert
Museum.
The V&A Jain Art Fund, in association with the
Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the
V&A, offers a series of research and travel grants,
which are administered under the auspices of the
Nehru Trust, New Delhi.
The Jain Art Fund grants support study, research
or training in the field of Jain cultural, historical and art historical studies. They support both
Indian-based scholars and museum curators
spending time in the UK, and UK-based scholars
and curators visiting India for study and research
purposes.
Scholarships are offered in each of the following
categories.
1. UK Visiting Fellowship
For a period of further professional training in
the UK
One award per year, to provide airfare and maintenance
2. UK Travel Award
For a short visit to the UK
One award per year, to a maximum of £1000
3. India Travel Award
For a short visit to India
One award per year, to a maximum of Rs. 80,000/4. Small Study and Research Grant (UK)
For acquiring essential research materials in the
United Kingdom
One or more grants per year, to a maximum of
£500
5. Small Study and Research Grant (India)
A number of small grants
Centre of
Jaina Studies
The deadline for applications is normally 15
February for awards beginning in April of the
same year.
For further details and application forms, see
www.nehrutrustvam.org
Jain Art Fund
50
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Jain Art at the Museum Rietberg
Nalini Balbir and Johannes Beltz
________________________________________________________________________________
he Museum Rietberg in Zurich is Switzerland’s only
museum of non-European art. Right from its creation
in 1952 it was conceived as an art museum and not as
an ethnographic collection. The founding mission of
its donator Eduard von der Heydt (1882-1964) and its
first director Johannes Itten (1888-1967) was indeed to
present world art: According to Von der Heydt a work of
art created by an Indian, Chinese or African artist should
be considered to be as important as Western art. His
motto was: Ars Una (there is only one art). This specific
mission distinguishes the Museum Rietberg even today
from other Swiss ethnographic museums. In addition to
this historic fact there is another point of importance to
note. The Museum Rietberg has always been a collector’s
museum, its holdings mainly received from donors, who
were themselves collectors.
These two points need to be kept in mind in order
to understand the specific history and the extraordinary
quality of the Jain collection at the Rietberg. As mentioned
above, the earliest acquisitions go back to Eduard von
der Heydt, who in 1952 donated four stone sculptures to
T
Figure 1. Head of a Tīrthaṃkara
India, Mathura, 1st or 2nd century
Sandstone, 33.5 x 23 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich, RVI 2
Gift Eduard von der Heydt
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
the Museum. Among them is the head of a Jina, an early
example from Mathura.1 (Figure 1) Also especially of
note is a sculpture of Ṛṣabhanātha.2 (Figure 2) The white
marble sculpture is likely to have been carved in the
11th or 12th century in Southern Rajasthan or Northern
Gujarat and it is the Museum’s most important holding
of Jain art.3 In 1970 the Swiss artist Alice Boner (18891982) donated three sculptures of the goddess Ambikā, a
fragment of a Jina and thirteen paintings to the museum
(all illustrations from Kalpasūtra manuscripts).
There was a major change in 1972, when Eberhard
Fischer became Director of the Museum Rietberg.
Fischer was especially interested in Jain art. In 1974 he
and his colleague Jyotindra Jain curated an exhibition
Figure 2. Ṛṣabhanātha
India, Rajasthan, Chandravati, 11th or 12th century
Marble, 161 x 57 x 25 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich, RVI 213
Gift Eduard von der Heydt
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
1 See J.E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Indische Skulpturen der Sammlung
Eduard von der Heydt, Zürich: Museum Rietberg, (1964), pp. 2224, Fig 1; Härtel, H., Indische Skulpturen, Band 1, Berlin, 1960,
Fig 11; H. Härtel, J. Irwin & R. Skelton, Indische Kunst, Stuttgart:
Würtembergischer Kunstverein/ Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
Hamburg: Dr. Cantzsche Druckerei, 1966, Abb. Kat. Nr. 43, p. 1.
2 See J.E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Indische Skulpturen der Sammlung
Eduard von der Heydt, pp. 110-117.
3 See for example Karl With, Bildwerke Ost- und Südasiens aus der
Sammlung Yi Yuan, Basel: Benno Schwabe & Co., 1924, Fig 90-93;
W. Cohn, Asiatische Plastik, China, Japan, Vorder-, Hinterindien,
Java: Sammlung Eduard von der Heydt, Berlin: Bruno Cassierer, 1932,
p. 127-31; H. Härtel, J. Irwin and R. Skelton, Indische Kunst, Hrsg.
von Würtembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Museum für Kunst und
Gewerbe Hamburg, Stuttgart: Dr. Cantzsche Druckerei, 1966, Fig. 91,
p. 31; Phyllis Granoff (ed.), Victorious Ones, Jain Images of Perfection,
New York: Rubin Museum of Art 2009, p. 110.
51
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Figure 3. Siddhacakra
India, Rajasthan, late 18th century
Pigments, copper, diameter 12 cm
Museum Rietberg, RVI 916
Gift Barbara and Eberhard Fischer
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
Figure 5. Tīrthaṃkara
India, Rajasthan, dated 1295
Stone, 66 x 55 x 20 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich, 2016.35
Gift Melitta Schachner and Iso Camartin
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
on the art and religion of the Jains.4 They also published
a book on Jain iconography.5 Over the years Fischer
continued to expand the Museum’s collection of Jain
art with a focus on Jain paintings. Today the Museum
holds almost two hundred pieces of Jain art, comprising
paintings and embroideries (Figures 3 and 4), sculptures
and ritual objects.6
As the Museum Rietberg plans a new exhibition
on Jain art in the next couple of years, it has started to
expand its collection of Jain objects. In 2016 a stone
Jina was donated by Melitta Schachner and Iso Camartin
(Figure 5). Unfortunately the inscription is unclear and
iconographic markers are missing, so we cannot say who
is depicted. However, the inscription refers to the year
1295 and mentions the donor Muni Shanta Rudra.
Also of note are some new acquisitions from the
Kaufmann collection in Vienna. These include a group of
six Jain bronzes, with images of Ṛṣabha and Mahāvīra
among them (Figure 6). Also of particularly interest is a
sculpture which can be identified through its inscription
at the back as the third Jina, Sambhavanātha. (Figure
7). The peculiarity here is that there are two distinct
inscriptions from two different hands at the back of
the image. The one in smaller script has a date, but it
is hardly legible. It is suspected that this inscription
might have been written at a later stage and may not
be authentic. The other inscription, on the other hand,
conforms to a general pattern and does not arouse
Figure 4. Pārśvanātha resisting attacks depicted on a choṛ
India, Gujarat, first half 20th century
Embroidery, 140 x 78 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich, 2012.104
Gift Barbara and Eberhard Fischer
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
52
4 E. Fischer and J. Jain, Kunst und Religion in Indien: 2500 Jahre
Jainismus, Wien: Museum für Völkerkunde, 1976.
5 J. Jain and E. Fischer, Jaina Iconography, Leiden: Brill 1978.
6 For velvet hangings such as Fig. 4 see Nalini Balbir, ‘Une forme d’art
religieux jaïn d’aujourdhui: les tentures cérémonielles (choṛ)’, Bulletin
d’Etudes Indiennes 33 (2015, publ. 2016), pp. 185-243.
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
suspicion. The language is Sanskrit and the script is
Jain Devanāgarī, a variety of Nāgarī used among Jains
in Western India. The inscription is not clear, but from
the discernible information we know the following: In
1491 CE (1548 of the Vikrama era) in Maṇḍapadurga,
identified with modern Mandu in Madhya Pradesh, the
image of Sambhavanātha (śrī Saṃbhavanāthabiṃbaṃ)
was commissioned (kāritam) by a pious Jain laywoman
named Padamāī. She was the wife of one Amarā who
was the third son of the couple Moghara (not sure) and
his wife Ramāī. The family belonged to one of the main
Jain castes known as Śrīmāla. At the end it is said that
the image was installed (pratiṣṭhitaṃ) by a Jain monk
(sūriṇā), whose name is not legible.
All new acquisitions are published in the online museum
database, which for the time being is only accessible in
German.7 Ultimately these works of Jain art are not only
an important new addition to the Museum Rietberg’s
existing collection, but a perfect prelude to the upcoming
Jain exhibition.
Nalini Balbir is Professor of Indology at SorbonneNouvelle University, Paris and member of UMR 7528
«Mondes iranien et indien»; Johannes Beltz is Deputy
Director, Head of Collections and Art Education, Curator
of South and Southeast Asian Art, Museum Rietberg,
Zurich.
7 www.rietberg.ch/de-ch/sammlung/sammlung-online.aspx
Figure 6. Ṛṣabha and Mahāvīra
India, 15th century
Copper alloy, 18 x 10.5 x 7 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich, 2016.58
Purchase: Ganesha-Foundation
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
Figure 7. Sambhavanātha
India, 15th Century (V.S. 1548)
Copper alloy, 27 x 10 x 9 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich, 2016.56
Purchase: Rietberg-Kreis
Image © Rainer Wolfsberger, Museum Rietberg
53
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Significant Jaina Murals in the Eastern and Western Malwa Region
Narmada Prasad Upadhyaya
_________________________________________________________________________________
M
alwa (Mālavā) has a rich heritage of Indian painting,
including Jaina subjects. The famous Bāgh caves
in Malwa were painted in the style of the Ajantā tradition
in the 5th-6th centuries. Kālidāsa (ca. 5th century), who
is considered to be a native of Ujjain, wrote in detail
about painting. Rājā Bhoja (11th century CE), a scholar
and Paramār ruler of Malwa, wrote about painting in his
famous work on architecture, Samarāṅgaṇāsūtradhāra.
According to the art historian Rai Krishna Das, the
painting tradition continued until the reign of Rājā
Udayāditya in the 11th to 12th centuries.1 Although
many examples are no longer extant, it can be concluded
that the tradition of painting, particularly wall painting,
flourished in Malwa at different times. This conjecture
can be further supported by the following evidence of
murals from the late medieval period, which to date have
not yet been described.
Śāntinātha Digambara Jaina Atiśaya-Kṣetra
Bajaraṅgagaḍha
Bajaraṅgagaḍh (Bajranggarh), also known as Jhārakona,
a small village located 7 km south of the city of Gunā in
Madhya Pradesh, is known as an atiśaya-kṣetra, or site
of miracles. The miraculous idols of the Tīrthaṅkaras
Śāntinātha, Kunthunātha and Aranātha in standing
postures were sculpted by one Śreṣṭhī, named Pādaśāha,
in Vikram Saṃvat 1236 (1179 CE). They were enshrined
1 Kṛṣṇadāsa, Rāya: Bhārata kī Citrakalā. Ilāhābāda: Bhāratī
Bhaṇḍāra, (1939) 1974, p. 28.
in a temple known as Śāntinātha Digambara Jaina
Atiśaya Kṣetra Bajaraṅgagaḍh, which was constructed
by one Śreṣṭhī, named Pādaśāha, in Vikram Saṃvat 1236
(1179 CE).2
The paintings on the walls of the main temple
in which the statues of the three Tīrthaṅkaras were
enshrined offered a panoramic view of the pilgrimage
site Sammedśikharajī. Its name was inscribed in Nāgarī
as Śrī Sammedsikarajī kau Nakasā (Naqśā), ‘Map of
Sammedśikharajī’. A section of this mural depicted a
scene of worship (Figure 1). In one mural, the welcoming
and veneration of the Jina by the fourfold community was
shown, with the Jina placed in a golden halo, representing
enlightenment, and uniquely depicting two groups of
monks, Digambara and Mūrtipūjaka, as well as groups of
female and male devotees. Adjacent to this one, a naked
Tīrthaṅkara in a sitting posture was shown, encircled by
members of the fourfold Jaina community along with
animals, all welcoming and venerating him. In another
mural, a Tirthaṅkara was shown. There was a dividing
line between the groups and ‘Kalpavāsa’ was inscribed
on the wall. Kalpavāsa means to live with forbearance,
and the same was pictured on the walls.
These paintings appeared to have been influenced by
the Bundelkhaṇḍ idiom. The moustaches were identical
to those in the paintings of Orachā, Datiyā and Ajayagaḍh,
where many paintings on paper and on walls were created
during the medieval and early modern periods. The
costumes, ornaments and jeweled crowns over the heads
2 In 2003 the present author was able to view and photograph these
murals for the first time and again in 2009.
Figure 2. Mural in the Śāntinātha Digambara Jaina Atiśaya Kṣetra in Bajaraṅgagaḍh, 2009.
54
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Figure 1. Mural in the Śāntinātha Digambara Jaina Atiśaya Kṣetra in Bajaraṅgagaḍh (M.P.), 2009.
of the devotees were painted with attention to fine detail
(Figure 2). They were depicted wearing mālās or small
garlands of pearls around their necks. The profiles were
proportionate and their slim, young bodies were painted
in light red. The men wore a long cloth, an uparṇā or
dupaṭṭā, over their right arm. The costumes of some
devotees were painted in green.
The motifs of the Orachā painting tradition were also
copied with little variations. We observed fine inlay work
in the depiction of the Tīrthaṅkara in a sitting posture.
There were conical bricks, hoisting flags, peacocks and
unique floral designs.
It may be concluded that these murals were painted
either in the last decades of 18th century or in the early
19th century. During this period Bajaraṅgagaḍh was under
the domination of the Khīcī rulers of Rāghogaḍh, which
explains why these paintings were influenced by the style
of Rāghogaḍh. This style was an amalgam of influences
from Bundī, Koṭā and Mevāṛ (Mewar). The paintings
would have been produced by the artists of Rajasthan,
and by the local artists of Rāghogaḍh. Rajasthani features
were particularly evident in the emerging banana trees,
the signature symbol of the Bundī and Koṭā styles. Thus,
this remarkable work was the product of artists of eastern
Malwa, representing the assimilation of Bundelkhaṇḍ,
Rāghogaḍh and Rajasthani painting styles, particularly
those of Bundī and Koṭā of Rajasthan.
Śāntinātha Jaina Temple in Ratlām
The western region of Malwa is adjacent to the Mewar
region of Rajasthan. The Malwa and Mewar painting
traditions have influenced each other to a great extent
over centuries. In the western Malwa region the Mewar
style is dominant.
There is a Jaina temple in Ratlam, which is known both
as the Agarajī Mandira and the Śāntinātha Jaina Mandira.
It was built in 1790 CE by Agarajī, an ascetic (jatī) under
the patronage of the royal court (darbār) of Ratlām,
which also made a grant of a share of certain custom
charges to the temple in 1790 and 1796. It also provided
a a grant of rent-free lands (māfī) for the maintenance
of the temple. There is an inscription on the gate that
includes the name Mahārājā Parbat Siṅgh (r. 1800-1825),
indicating that he might have made additional grants to
the temple. There are murals on the walls, painted in red,
showing the influence of Rajasthani wall paintings. This
in not unusual as Ratlam is adjacent to Bānsvāṛā and
Udaipur. These murals are likely to have been painted
in the earlier decades of 19th century, influenced by the
Mewar style. Paintings were also produced in niches.
The main features of this style are stout human figures,
lush vegetation and Rajasthani architecture. Many of
the depictions are of traditional Hindu subjects, but
Jaina subjects are also evident, for example an image of
Ambikā shown with a deer next to a child who is looking
towards her. We also find depictions of Jaina monks,
55
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Figure 3.Painting of Jaina temples at Pāvapuri and of Śivaite hermits engaged in yoga, Baṛe Bābājī Temple, Ratlām.
Tīrthaṅkaras and yakṣīs having wings that have been
proportionately painted. A monk is seated and preaching
to disciples standing before him. The Tīrthaṅkara is
sitting in padmāsana and two worshippers, a male and
female, a royal couple, are seen standing left and right of
the Tīrthaṅkara.
Bābājī Temple in Ratlām
An example of a Jaina temple with murals that are still
preserved and in good condition is the Bābājī Mandira,
situated in the center of Ratlam. These paintings, likely
painted in the early decades of 19th century, have a clear
Mewar influence. The exact history of the temple is not
known, but it is likely that the temple was constructed in
the 18th century. The murals would have been executed
later, probably in the first half of the 19th century.
The main walls of the temple are painted and the
colours are still vibrant. (Figure 3) A painting of
Pāvāpurī, the place where Mahāvīra’s reached nirvāṇa,
is well executed with ‘Pāvāpurī’ inscribed on it. There
are small figures of the pilgrims visiting this temple
depicted on the wall, and scenes of the temple showing
the hoisting of flags, towers, trees and women, painted
in Mewar style. The Śreṣṭhīs are shown in traditional
dresses. In one painting a goddess is seen enshrined and
two royal ladies are worshipping her. The use of magenta
is typical of the style adopted by medieval artists in the
central Indian region, particularly Rāghogaḍh. This style
then travelled from Malwa to the Deccan, and continued
to be employed.
The murals in this temple depict a number of activities.
56
We find the idol of Bhagavāna Pārśvanātha enshrined,
and a couple worshipping it. There are chariots, ponds
and houses surrounded by banana and banyan trees. In
the surrounding fields four Śivaite hermits are depicted
engaged in their meditation in yoga postures. In another
painting a furious elephant can be seen along with some
spectators looking at the animal with fear. There are
boats in the pond and number of activities are shown in
the lower panel of the painting.
As discussed above, the paintings of Bajaraṅgagaḍh
are now unfortunately no more in existence but it is clear
that the painting style of the eastern Malwa region was
distinct in many ways from the Jaina murals painted in
the western region of Malwa. The eastern Malwa Jaina
murals were influenced by the Orachā mural tradition and
Bundī, Koṭā and Rāghogaḍh as well, while the paintings
of Ratlam though late, have an apparent influence of
the Mewar idiom. The survey of Malwa Jaina paintings
opens new gates for the observation and study of the rich
heritage of the Jain community of Malwa.
Narmada Prasad Upadhyaya is an independent
researcher of Indian miniature paintings, particularly
central Indian paintings. He has written extensively on
the Jaina painting tradition and is currently working
on the illustrated manuscripts of the Bhaktamara
Stotra. He lives in Indore (Madhyapradesh). E-mail:
upadhyayanarmada@gmail.com
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF JAINA STUDIES (ONLINE)
Recent Articles:
International Journal of Jaina Studies (Online)
Vol. 12, No. 1 (2016) 1-10
JOHANNES BRONKHORST
Jaina Versus Brahmanical Mathematicians
International Journal of Jaina Studies (Online)
Vol. 12, No. 2 (2016) 1-2
WILLEM B. BOLLÉE
Review of Early Asceticism in India: Ājīvikism
and Jainism
International Journal of Jaina Studies (Online)
Vol. 13, No. 1 (2017) 1-65
MONIKA HORSTMANN
Nāth and Dādūpanthī Critique of Jains
Published by the
Centre of Jaina Studies
SOAS
ISSN: 1748-1074
About the IJJS
The Centre of Jaina Studies
at SOAS established the International Journal of Jaina
Studies (Online) to facilitate academic communication. The
main objective of the journal is to publish research papers,
monographs, and reviews in the field of Jaina Studies in
a form that makes them quickly and easily accessible to
the international academic community, and to the general
public. The journal draws on the research and the symposia
conducted at the Centre of Jaina Studies at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and
on the global network of Jaina scholarship. The opinions
expressed in the journal are those of the authors, and do not
represent the views of the School of Oriental and African
Studies or the Editors, unless otherwise indicated.
The International Journal of Jaina Studies is a publication
of the Centre of Jaina Studies at the School of Oriental and
African Studies of the University of London. It is available
in two different forms: online at: www.soas.ac.uk/ijjs and in
print by Hindi Granth Karyalay. Articles published online
should be cited: International Journal of Jaina Studies (Online), and articles published in print: International Journal
of Jaina Studies.
www.soas.ac.uk/ijjs/index.html
Digital Resources in Jaina Studies at SOAS
The Centre of Jaina Studies has taken the first steps towards the open access publication of rare resources in digital form on
its Website. These include journals and manuscripts. Materials acquired by the AHRB Funded Project on Jaina Law are in the
form of digital images of manuscripts and printed texts.To make these materials publicly available, a section for Digital Jaina
Resources was set up on the Centre website. There is also a monograph in the new series 'Working Papers of the Centre of Jaina
Studies' (Vol. 1):
Flügel, Peter (2012) Askese und Devotion: Das rituelle System der Terāpanth Śvetāmbara Jains. Centre of Jaina Studies
Working Paper Vol. 1. London: Centre of Jaina Studies.
www.soas.ac.uk/jainastudies
57
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
Postgraduate Courses
in Jaina Studies
Non-Violence in Jaina Scriptures, Philosophy
and Law
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the Jaina
ethics of non-violence, ahiṃsā, in Jaina scriptures, philosophy and law. In cultural history, the Jaina scriptures
are unique in their exclusive focus on the religious significance of strictly non-violent practice, in mind, speech
and action. Jaina literature offers a millennia old tradition
of philosophical and legal reflection on solutions for practical dilemmas faced by individuals or groups intent on
the implementation of non-violent principles in everyday
life.
Based on key texts in translation, selected from the
canonical and post-canonical Jaina literature, and illustrated by ethnographic examples, the course discusses the
distinct contributions of Jaina literature to the philosophy
of consciousness and applied ethics (asceticism, vegetarianism, discourse ethics, philosophical pluralism, conflict
resolution, and legal philosophy and procedure).
At the end of the course students should be familiar
with the most important sources and developmental stages
of the Jaina philosophy of non-violence, the principal issues structuring ethical and legal debates within the Jaina
tradition, and their practical implications for contemporary discourse and practice of non-violence as a way of
life.
Jainism: History, Doctrine and the
Contemporary World
The aim of this MA course is to introduce students to key
aspects of Jainism. It will focus on the doctrinal and social history of Jainism, on the Jaina paths of salvation,
Jaina asceticism and monasticism, Jaina communities
and Jaina sectarianism, and on religious practices. These
include, the rites of purification or āvaśyaka rites, selfmortification (tapasya), meditation (dhyāna), temple worship (pūjā), charity (dāna), vegetarianism and the Jaina
practice of sallekhanā or death through self-starvation.
The course will conclude with an overview of Jaina philosophical pluralism and modern Jaina ecology.
The structure of the course is broadly historical, but
material will be drawn from both textual and ethnographic
sources. The key subjects will be the history of Jainism,
the Jaina prophets and Jaina scriptures, Jaina doctrines of
non-violence, Jaina schools and sects, contemporary religious and social practices, and Jainism in the modern
world.
Convenor: Peter Flügel (pf8@soas.ac.uk)
Centre of
Jaina Studies
www.soas.ac.uk/jainastudies
58
PhD/MPhil in Jainism
SOAS offers two kinds of Research Degrees
in the Study of Jainism.
PhD. This involves at least three years of full-time
study, leading to a thesis of 100,000 words and an
oral examination. The thesis must be an original piece
of work and make a distinct contribution to knowledge of the subject.
MPhil. This entails at least two years of full-time
study, leading to a thesis of 60,000 words and a viva.
It should be either a record of original research work
or a critical discussion of existing knowledge.
Why choose SOAS?
The Centre of Jaina Studies
The unique activities of the Centre of Jaina Studies
provide an ideal research environment for Jaina Studies and a vibrant forum for debate.
The SOAS Library
SOAS has one of the best libraries for Asian and African Studies, with nearly a million volumes. Students
have access to other world-class libraries in walking
distance, such as the British Library, which hosts one
of the largest collections of Jaina texts in the world.
Languages and Cultures
SOAS has a uniquely cosmopolitan character. Central to the School's identity is the study of Asian and
African languages and the relationship between language, culture, religion and society.
Funding
The fees of SOAS are very competitive compared to
other Ivy League universities. The School offers nine
Research Student Fellowships each year. Awards are
also available from funding bodies such as the Arts
and Humanities Research Council in the UK.
For further details please contact:
Centre of Jaina Studies
jainstudies@soas.ac.uk
www.soas.ac.uk/jainastudies
SOAS Registry:
registrar@soas.ac.uk
020 7898 4321
CoJS Newsletter • March 2017 • Issue 12
COURSES IN
JAINA STUDIES
AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
SOAS
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research
opportunities at the Centre of Jaina Studies (CoJS).
The aim of the CoJS is to promote the study of Jaina religion and culture by providing an interdisciplinary platform for academic research, teaching and publication in the field.
TAUGHT UNDERGRADUATE
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction to Jainism
Jaina Scripture and Community
Non-Violence in Jaina Scriptures, Philosophy
and Law
Introduction to Prakrit
Readings in Prakrit
TAUGHT POSTGRADUATE
•
•
•
•
Jainism History, Doctrine and the
Contemporary World
Jaina Scripture and Community
Non-Violence in Jaina Scriptures, Philosophy
and Law
Introduction to Prakrit
POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH
•
•
•
MA Jaina Studies
MA Prakrit Studies
Three-year PhD in Jaina Studies
The CoJS organizes the annual SOAS Jaina Studies
International Conference and regular lectures and
seminar series.
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, is one
of the world's leading institutions of Higher Education with a unique focus on the
study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Courses in Jaina Studies can form part of a BA or MA in Study of Religions, taken as
part of our interdisciplinary Asia Area Studies programmes. PhD programmes are
also available. Study of Religions at SOAS can also be combined with law, social
sciences, languages or humanities subjects.
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES
For further details about studying at SOAS please contact the Student Recruitment Office:
Tel: 020 7898 4034 Email: study@soas.ac.uk
www.soas.ac.uk
59
Centre of Jaina Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
email: jainastudies@soas.ac.uk
Centre Chair
Dr Peter Flügel
Newsletter Editors
Dr Peter Flügel & Janet Leigh Foster
Design
Janet Leigh Foster
Printed by Calderstone Printers, Tadworth
For information on the Centre please consult the Centre website:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/jainastudies
ISSN 2059-416X
SOAS • Russell Square • London WC1H 0XG •
Email: jainastudies@soas.ac.uk
Centre of
Jaina Studies