Dr. B.K. Khadabadi
The Field Of Founding And Promotion Of Prakrit And Jainological Studies
Dr. Upadhye, who had great interest in Prakrit language, literature and Jainology, had a unique foresight for their progress and he put in great efforts to get for them independent positions in Colleges, Universities and Research Institutes. In the Rajaram College, which was under the then state administration, he had already got independent Department for Prakrit or Ardhamagadhi. Later, after the birth of the Shivaji University, he saw that all the colleges affiliated to this University possessed independent Departments for Prakrit. Among all the Universities in India This has such arrangement.
Moreover he played a dominant role in framing the syllabi of Prakrit both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the various Indian Universities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Dharwad etc. He was a main adviser in starting the Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology and Ahimsa at Vaishali and in deciding its courses and syllabus etc. for the first time. Moreover he was an important member of the Advisory Committee of this Institute till the end of his life.
He was appointed as the Founder Professor of the Jainology Chair at the University of Mysore at the age of 66. There with hard work and organizing skill, within a few years, he got it converted into a full-fledged independent Department of Jainology and Prakrit Studies. Such Department then happened to be the first of its kind in India. Moving on the footsteps of this Department there gradually appeared similar Departments of Jainology and Prakrit at Karnatak University, (Dharwad), Panjab University (Patiala), Sukhadia University (Udaipur), and Madras University (Madras).
In 1968, approaching and convincing the U.G.C., he organized the first All India Seminar of Prakrit Studies at the Shivaji University, Kolhapur. The waves of this independent first Prakrit Seminar created waves for the birth of further sessions of such seminar at the various Universities and Research Institutes at Poona, Bombay, Nagpur, Ahmedabad etc. I have seen, with my own eyes, how Dr. Upadhye, as the Director of that first Seminar in Prakrit studies held at the Shivaji University, worked day and night throughout its session. His skill in the organization of its various limbs, the standard and discipline maintained in the procedure of the seminar, the arrangements of stay, food, transport, visits to nearby historical and cultural centres etc. were ideal and he gave personal attention to all of them by working hard from morning to night. On the top of the invitation card of the seminar, he had got printed the following canonical line as a motto:
Jenev saddhae nikkhamamto tameva anupalejja
"Whatever faith you have started with, stick up to it (until you reach your goal).
This significant line picked up from the Acaranga Sutra was highly illuminating and instructing to all 50 delegates and such other scholars who were leading academic life in teaching and research with unstable or wavering mind.
Moreover, leading an unassuming life, like a fruit behind the leaf, Dr. Upadhye happened to be a main source of advice and encouragement for the establishment of some Research Institutes, for instituting trusts for Awards, for special lecture series and for publication of valuable ancient works still lying in manuscript form etc.
In the context of the Revered Mahavira swami's 2500th Liberation Festival, in the great Mahatma's birth place, Vaishali, Dr. Upadhye played a crucial role. Under the leadership of the philanthropists Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and with the help of Bihar Government, in the establishment of the Institute of Ahimsa, Jainology and Prakrit. Even in instituting the prestigious Award for creative literature in modern Indian languages by the Bharatiya Jnana Pitha, his plan and advice were of great use. He also prepared the outline and general rules for the R. K. Jain Lecture Series, at Delhi University, to be instituted by R. K. Jain Charitable Trust and advised and encouraged its Chairman Shri Prem Chand Jain in this respect. The main purpose of these lectures is to get 2-3 lectures delivered every year on Prakrit and Jain values by an eminent scholar. Such lecture series happened to be the first of its kind in Indian Universities and is still an unparalleled one. Moreover it stood as a model for other Indian Universities and Research Institutes and inspired some of them to start new such lectures series. I feel rather proud to have been invited for one of this series at Delhi Universities (in September 1991). My subject was "Jaina Code of Conduct for Householders, Its significance and Relevance to the Present times." These lectures have been published in a book form in 1991 only, by the Ahimsa Mandir Prakashan, Shri Rajakrishna Jain Charitable Trust, New Delhi.
