Coincidences- Two Parts in One Book (Yogayoga)

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About the Book The reader of this fascinating memoir will be introduced to the vibrant world of Indian studies of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism in the middle of the twentieth century, when scholars at universities and research institutions in India were bringing to visibility the texts and traditions of classical and medieval South Asia. The reader will follow the path of Professor Jaini from a young boy in Tulunadu, through his early school days at Jain ashrams at Karanja and Bahubali Hill in southern Maharashtra, his undergraduate college days in Nashik, and his M.A. studies in Ahmedabad. Along the way the reader will meet such greats of Indian scholarship as Bhujabali Shastri, Kshullaka (later Muni) Samantabhadra, Nathuram Premi, and Pandit Sukhlal Sanghavi. He next studied Pali and Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka for two years. His expertise in Buddhism brought him back to Ahmedabad, and then to teach at Banaras Hindu University, where his path intersected with those of Acharya Narendra Dev and Dalsukh Malvaniya. Subsequent meetings with scholars took him first to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he lectured on Pali and Buddhism and earned his Ph.D., and then to the United States, first to the University of Michigan, and finally to the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught for nearly a quarter of a century. More remarkable meetings happened during these years and after his retirement: H. H. the Dalai Lama, Muni Jambuvijaya, H. H. Pope John Paul II.

The guiding theme of this memoir is how events beyond the author's control played a significant part in shaping his career and opened unexpected pathways. Those of us who have had the good fortune to study with and in other ways benefit from Professor Jaini's wisdom and compassion can add to the linked chain of intersections, as without him Buddhist and Jain scholarship would not have been the same.

Foreword The academic life at times can seem like a lonely pursuit, as scholars work by themselves in their studies. This delightful memoir by Professor Padmanabh S. Jaini shows that scholarship is never just a solitary endeavor, however. All scholars are indebted to a long and large train of forebears and contemporaries, without whom they would not have been able to pursue their own work. Professor Jaini shows how scholarship is a deeply shared, community experience.

The reader of this engaging volume will be introduced to the vibrant world of Indian studies of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism in the middle of the twentieth century, when scholars at universities and research institutions large and small in India were bringing to visibility the texts and traditions of classical and medieval South Asia. The reader will also be introduced to the equally vibrant scholarship in Europe and North America during the period that saw the rise of South Asian area studies as an academic field and of Buddhist studies as an integrated field that encompassed the study of the Buddhist traditions of all regions of Asia.

The reader will follow the path of Professor Jaini, from a young boy in a Digambar Jain family in Tulunadu with a school-teacher father and a well-known author mother, through his early school days at Jain ashrams at Karanja and Bahubali Hill in southern Maharashtra, his undergraduate college days in Nashik, and his M.A. studies in Ahmedabad. Along the way the reader will meet such greats of Indian scholarship as Bhujabali Shastri, Kshullaka (later Muni) Samantabhadra, Nathuram Premi, and Pandit Sukhlal Sanghavi. Pandit Sukhlal was a pioneer in comparative religious studies and at his urging Jaini learned Pali, and eventually became an expert on the Pali literature of Theravada Buddhism.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages