Foundation of the Center for Jaina Studies at Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin has a great tradition in indological research and study. It was one of the first places in Europe, where a chair of Indology was established in the year 1818 and is associated with the great scholars of Indology like Max Müller, Albrecht Weber, Johann Georg Bühler and Walther Schubring. In Berlin the research of Jainism began by the work of Walther Schubring, who studied and indexed the large Jaina manuscript collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library). Later Klaus Bruhn (a student of Ludwig Alsdorf, Walther Schubring and U. P. Shah) held the chair of Indology at Freie Universität Berlin. He is one of the leading experts on Jainism in the western world but is retired since many years.
Freie Universität Berlin, where the Center for Jaina Studies is situated, is the largest of the four universities of Berlin and is a leading institution of research and study. It is one of the German universities successful in all three funding lines in the federal and state Excellence Initiative, thereby receiving additional funding for its institutional future development strategy. Freie Universität Berlin can thus take its place as an international network university in the global competition among universities and has various offices abroad, among them also an office in New Delhi.
The Center for Jaina Studies at Freie Universität Berlin is administrativley positioned at the Department of History and Cultural Studies but is situated at the South Asian Art History Center of Art History Department. Research and teaching will be focused on Jaina art which comprises the related fields of cultural history and religious studies.
The teaching program include:
• Jaina art and architecture.
• History of Jainism (including cultural history and religious studies).
• Jaina world view and conception of life including mythology, essentials of philosophy and literature etc.
Lecture on Jaina miniature painting on the occasion of "Night of Sciences" in May 2011 at Freie Universität Berlin
The Center for Jain Studies is headed by Patrick Krueger, who is a former student of Klaus Bruhn, supervised by the head of the department, Monika Zin. This should give BA- and MA-students of History of South-Asian Art or Scientific study of Religions the opportunity to focus on Jainism. The Jainologists Klaus Bruhn (Berlin), Mrs. Adelheid Mette (Munich), Nagarajaiah Hampa (Bangaluru) and the Art Historian and Indologist Adalbert J. Gail (Berlin and Prague) form the advisory board of the Center. In matters of publication the Center for Jaina Studies cooperate with HereNow4u.net. In addition, the Center for Jaina Studies cooperates with the Museum of Asian Art, which is located in the immediate vicinity and has an excellent collection of Jaina art.
Teaching on Jainology began already in fall term 2010. Some lectures on Jaina art were held in May 2011 at Museum of Asian Art and on the occasion of "Night of Sciences" at Freie Universität Berlin, where the Center for Jaina Studies was presented first time to the public. Since then more and more students are interested in Jainism. Currently some students of South Asian Art History studying art and archaeology of Jainism and a student from France is writing a MA-thesis on Jaina architecture.