Wilfried Nölle
The paper was published in the book Impact of Indian Thought on German Poets and Philosophers (The Jaina Academy Publications 7, Aliganj (Etah): The World Jain Mission, 1963, pp. 10-28). As a contemporary historical source the essay illustrates of the situation of Indology and Jaina Studies in post-war Germany.
Indology and Jaina Studies in Germany
I. German Studies in Indology
1. A Long List of Names
The Schlegel brothers were truly the fathers of German Indology; they were followed by great scholars who promoted the scientific study of Indology in an effort to enrich human knowledge.
The German indologists of the 19th century and the early 20th century make up a long list of famous names. Here we only mention the most outstanding ones:
Franz Bopp (1791-1867), the first indologist at Berlin university and the teacher of Wilhelm von Humboldt, reconstructed the common ancestor of Sanskrit and the classical languages.
Max Mueller (1823-1900) is the German indologist who is known best in India. His research work marked the first peak of Indology in Germany, nay, the whole of Europe. Max Mueller, who was born in Dessau in Central Germany and shifted to Oxford where he rediscovered the Vedas, came to be known throughout the world also by his Sacred Books of the East, 49 volumes of which appeared during the period 1874-1884, 31 containing translations of Indian texts. He edited the Rigveda with the Commentary of Sayana. The six volumes of this edition came out between 1849 and 1874. Max Mueller translated the Dhammapada the Sukhavati Vyuha and the Vajracchedika-prajna-paramita. These translations made more valuable his great work of editing the translations of the Pali-Pitaka (about M. Mueller's contribution to the progress of studies in Buddhism see 2500 Years of Buddhism, ed. by P.V. Bapat,1959). Son of a well-known German poet of the Romantic period, Max Mueller was also the founder of the Science of Religion, a term coined by him in 1867. Mueller, who never visited India, called this country the Paradise on earth:
"If I were to search the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that Nature can bestow, in some parts a very paradise on earth - I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems and has found solutions of some of them which will deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant - I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we here in Europe - we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of the Greeks and the Romans and of one Semitic race, the Jewish - may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life not for this only, but a transfigured and eternal life, again I should point to India." (India - What Can It Teach Us, 1883).
Since Max Mueller's time scholars have been studying the religions both historically and critically with the help of the Holy Scriptures.
Otto von Boethlingk (1815-1904) edited and translated Panini's Grammar and Kalidasa's Shakuntalu - His main work, however, is the enormous Sanskrit-German dictionary generally known as the St. Petersburg Lexicon, which he published in collaboration with the Tübingen Professor of Sanskrit, Rudolph Roth (1821-1895) in seven parts between 1852 and 1875.
The Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences supported the enterprise financially. Boethlingk's and Roth's dictionary has become the basis of all lexicographical work in Sanskrit. Roth became, by his short but epoch-making work On the Literature and History of the Veda (1816), the founder of Vedic philology in Germany.
Christian Lassen (1800-1876), the pioneer of the History of Ancient India, published as Professor of Sanskrit at Bonn University a complete synopsis of the political history of India up to the Mohammedan conquest and of Indian geography and culture. The four volumes of this work are of great value even today. Lassen wrote in 1826 his Essay in Pali and in 1844 his Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism and thereby laid the foundation of the study of Pali, the oldest daughter of Sanskrit, and of the investigation of Buddhist literature. Professor Lassen was very absentminded in his private life. Once it so happened that he was travelling in a Post-Office Bus. In order to utilize his time profitably, he started reading a manuscript which a young poet had sent to him for his comments. Soon he was completely engrossed in the manuscript which was written on loose sheets of paper. Believing that, as usual, he was sitting at his desk, he put each page after reading it on the left-hand side. When he had finished reading the last page, he wanted to gather up the pages again, but was suddenly brought back to reality because he was horrified to find that he had thrown everything, page after page, out of the window.
To the works of these pioneers must be added that of Albrecht Weber (1825-1901), Theodor Aufrecht (1822-1907), Hermann Grassmann (1809-1877), Karl Friedrich Geldner (1852-1929), Richard Pischel (1849-1908), Theodor Benfey (1809-1881), Franz Kielhorn (1840-1908) and others. Weber edited the White Yajurveda and evaluated Jain manuscripts, Aufrecht edited the Rigveda and the Aitareya Brahmana and Grassmann wrote a dictionary of the Rigveda and translated the complete text into German, Geldner was also the author of a German translation of the Rigveda, Pischel published Vedic Studies in three volumes and a grammar of Prakrit languages, Benfey translated the Samaveda and the Pancatantra and Kielhorn wrote grammatical treatises. Whatever branch of indology we may look into we always run across the names of German scholars. The work done by Max Mueller, Christian Lassen and the other pioneers raised Indology to a high status in German universities, with the result that today almost all universities in the country teach Indology as a separate subject.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Paul Deussen set up a further landmark by his translations of 60 Upanishads and his philosophical writings. Paul Deussen (1845-1919) was an adherent of Arthur Schopenhauer, the great admirer of Vedanta. We owe it to Deussen that Indian philosophy obtained an adequate scientific appreciation in Europe (see Friedrich Wilhelm, 1. c, H. v. Glasenapp, Die Philosophie der Inder, 1949).
2. Investigator of Indian Culture
The German Indologist, as a rule, is also an investigator of Indian culture. The highest achievements of the culture of India and the contribution of Indian culture to the culture of the entire human race, however, lie particularly in Indian antiquity, and in the study of antiquity Sanskrit plays a more important part Indian than Greek or Latin does in Europe. Therefore, no serious attempt to understand the culture of modern India will be successful unless it is accompanied by a working knowledge of Sanskrit and an appreciation of India's cultural background which, again, is not possible without the help of Sanskrit. For this reason alone Indology can never disregard the fundamentals of Sanskrit philology; it must always build upon it.
All that has been said about Indology in Germany is true about Indology in any other country as well. Indological studies in Germany, however, have always been the soundest, and this fact is known to a large number of people. And indological studies have also played an important part in Indo-German relations. In the peculiar situation - from the psychological point of view of the people of the country - prevailing in India under foreign domination, the rediscovery of India's ancient and forgotten history, thanks to indological studies and the recognition of India's cultural achievments by Europeans, had a momentous significance. Indology served as a valuable lever for the development of nationalistic thought and as a great contribution to the freedom movement in the country. And it is just on account of Indology that one had and still has, the often exaggerated impression - an impression which almost every German has come across in India many a time - that every educated German knows Sanskrit.
The German Indologist, as an investigator of India's past and as a Sanskritist, became a pioneer, followed by the merchant and the politician. Owing to this fact, the foundations for Indo-German cultural relations, laid by Indological studies constitute even to-day the basis of economic relations between the two countries.
As in the past, Indology is being nurtured with care at present in the Federal Repulic of Germany. Complete freedom is allowed to scholars in their work. This is clear from the fact that a large number of Indologists have fled the so-called German Democratic Republic during the last few years, and that these refugee-scholars are now working as professors and assistants in different universities in the Federal Republic of Germany. These Indologists could no longer carry on their work in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, in the absence of an atmosphere of freedom. For the Communists retain in the universities under their control only those "scientists" who base their work on the theories propounded by Marx and Lenin. Every genuine scientist knows he cannot carry on the pursuit of science with preconceived notions, for science has no ideological affiliations and must be always objective.
Among such Indologists who have fled the Soviet zone are Dr. Schneider, formerly of the University of Leipzig and now of the University of Freiburg, Breisgau; Dr. Wilhelm, formerly of the University of East Berlin and now in Munich University; Dr. Haebler, formerly of Leipzig University and now of Saarbruecken University; Dr. Scharfe, formerly of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin and now of Bonn University; and Dr. von Kamptz, formerly of Jena University and now in Munich.
The study of Indology in Germany has been so well organized that almost every important library in the country has a special collection of books on India and almost every University has a departmental library of Indology. The scholars take a continuing and active interest in the subject. German Indologists have been contributing scientific papers to the more than hundred-year-old magazine Journal of the German Oriental Society (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft), the Vienna Journal of Information on South and East Asia (Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd-und Ostasiens) and the Indo-Iranian Journal (Indo-iranische Zeitschrift). The German Indologist contributes his papers also to Oriental periodicals in many other countries. Three German universities have their own magazines on Indology. They are: Ancient and Modern Indian Studies (Alt- und neu-indische Studien), Hamburg University; Indological Studies in Munich (Münchener Indologische Studien), Munich University; and Oriental Studies from Bonn (Bonner Orientalistische Studien), Bonn University.
An important part in bringing together and linking the Indian and German peoples culturally is played by the India Institute at Munich; it was founded in 1929 as a branch of the German Academy, and was re-established in 1949 in conjunction with the Taraknath Das Foundation, New York. Besides this there are other institutions namely, German-India Society, Stuttgart, and the East Asia Association, Hamburg, which are also interested in
India. In India, we have the Indo-German Cultural Society in Bombay, with a library of German literature, and the Max Mueller-Bhavans. In Bad Godesberg, near Bonn, Professor Lothar Wendel of Birla Education Trust (Pilani) established a Jain library on the initiative of the World Jain Mission (India), which has been patronised and fostered by the Municipal Corporation of Bad Godesberg. In Marburg, we have the "Collection of material for the study of religions" (Religionskundliche Sammlung) serving a real purpose as a source of reference and research for scholars and students interested in Indian and Eastern religions.
Marburg is noted as the city of the Holy Elizabeth and the important conference between the Reformers, Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, in 1529; Marburg's philosophers and theologians have found enthusiastic followers everywhere. The Religionskundliche Sammlung is a gift of the 1927 jubilee. Its founder is the Professor of Theology and Comparative Religions, Rudolf Otto, who is best known as the author of The Idea of the Holy (1924). The collection is not simply an art collection or an art museum; it is to be a collection illustrative of the whole of man's religious development, brought together for the purpose of stimulating and assisting in the study of religion. Marburg is now famous as centre for religious research.
German Indologists attend the German Oriental Congress which is held every three years as well as international conferences, specially the International Orientalists' Conference, the next session of which will be held in New Delhi in 1963.
3. Six Chairs
There are six chairs of Indology in the Federal Republic of Germany [only the chairs at universities of West-Germany are mentioned. In the decades after the publication of this paper, many other chairs of Indology were (re-)established at German universities. This article describes the situation of post-war Germany; Editor HN4U], but in almost every other university Sanskrit is taught within the frame of Comparative Linguistics, while there exist possibilities of the study of Sanskrit at almost every university. A complete course of Indology with facilities for the doctorate is available only at the following six universities:
(1) Bonn: The chair was founded in 1818 and has been held by August Wilhelm Schlegel, Christian Lassen, Theodor Aufrecht, Hermann Jacobi, Willibald Kirfel (an honorary member of the International Academy of Jain Wisdom & Culture, Aliganj) and Paul Hacker (since 1955). Professor Kirfel's most important contribution is the book Purana-Pancalakshana (1927). Kirfel's concern was also Indian medicine and ethnology. Hacker, the successor to Kirfel in his chair, determines in his research on the Vedanta Philosophy the identity of each of the numerous teachers of Vedanta and interprets their individuality.
(2) Tübingen: The famous chair at Tübingen University was founded in 1856 and has been occupied so far by Rudolph Roth, Richard Garbe, Jacob Wilhelm Hauer, Helmuth von Glasenapp (upto 1960) and Paul Thieme. Garbe is the name of the most important Samkhya scholar.
Professor Helmuth von Glasenapp is the most outstanding Indologist of presentday Germany. Few Indologists have contributed in the same measure as von Glasenapp to make Germany familiar with the spiritual tradition of India (see W. Noelle, Verzeichnis der Schriften Helmuth von Glasenapps (Bibliography), 1951, and Deuter der indischen Welt, 1956). This well-known Indologist, who is an honorary member of the lnternational Academy of Jain Wisdom and Culture and a member of the All India Sanskrit Parishad, was elected in 1960 a Fellow of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. Besides him, other scholars such as Q.P. Malasekhara (Ceylon), Arnold Toynbee (United Kingdom), Taha Hussain (United Arabic Republic) and Guiseppe Tucci (Italy) have also been nominated to the Council.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations was established in 1950 by the Government of India with a view to promoting international understanding through closer cultural relations between India and other countries. The Council seeks to achieve this objective, on the one hand, by promoting a wider knowledge and appreciation of the cultural heritage of India in other countries and, on the other, by encouraging the dissemination of knowledge in India about the cultures of other countries in the world.
Born in 1891, Professor Helmuth von Glasenapp is the author of numerous books on Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other subjects relating to Indian religion and philosophy. His work dealing with Jainism (Der Jainismus, 1925 [an English translation of this book was published in 1984, Editor HN4U]) has been published in Gujarati in 1930 under the title Jain Dharma. He also published in 1915 a study about the teachings of Karma in the Philosophy of the Jains. He journeyed through India, right from the Himalyas to Cape Comorin, several times and also visited other countries where Indians have settled down. At the invitation of President Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Prime Minister Nehru in 1951-1952, he participated in the UNESCO Round Table discussion on the philosophical and cultural relations between East and West held in New Delhi. On that occasion he met leading Indians and renewed his acquaintance with Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan whom he had first met as long ago as 1926.
At a special ceremony held at Tübingen University in 1953, the then Indian Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. S. Dutt, paid homage to Professor von Glasenapp as a scholar who stood by the side of India during the darkest days of her subjection to foreign rule, and had never doubted her great future.
Later, in 1956, the Professor participated in the 2,500th anniversary celebration of the Buddha's parinirvana in India when he presided at a symposium on Buddhist philosophy held in New Delhi and also made a special study-tour of Buddhist holy places. Helmuth von Glasenapp was the German delegate to the International PEN-Conference in Tokyo in 1957 when he delivered a learned address on "Indian influence on Western Literature."
At present Professor von Glasenapp is publishing two volumes describing Indian influence. on German philosophy and literature. Amongst his contributions to the spiritual relations between Germany and India, his work Kant and the Religions of the East (1954) is specially worth mentioning. The International Academy of Jain Wisdom and Culture awarded in 1962 Prof, von Glasenapp the honoray doctorate. Professor Thieme is the successor of Helmuth von Glasenapp (since 1960); he is internationally renowned as Vedist and as an expert on Panini.
(3) Göttingen: The chair was founded in 1862 and has been held by Theodor Benfey, Franz Kielhorn, who taught for 15 years as a professor at Poona College, Hermann Oldenberg, Emil Sieg and Ernst Waldschmidt (since 1936). Professor Waldschmidt is a Buddhologist and is studying the Buddhist manuscripts which were found in East Turkestan during the four "Royal Prussian Turfan Expeditions" which were conducted under the leadership of Professor Heinrich Grünwedel and Professor Albert von Le Coq (1902-1914). These Turfan texts originate from the Gupta and the post-Gupta periods and are counted as the oldest Indian manuscripts available. Waldschmidt has also done research on the Buddhist art; in 1932 he published a treatise on Buddhist art in India.
(4) Munich: The chair was founded in 1867 and has been occupied by Martin Haug, Ernst Kuhn, Wilhelm Geiger, Hanns Oertel, Walther Wuest and Helmut Hoffmann (since 1948). Haug has also taught as Sanskrit professor in India. Wilhelm Geiger (1856-1943) published Pali Literature and Language and Literature and Language of the Singhalese (1916 and 1900), he became honorary member of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Professor Hoffmann's main concern is the history of Buddhism and Lamaism. His comprehensive work on Sources for history of the Tibetan Bon-Religion (1950) is the first study of this subject. In 1956 he published a book The religions of Tibet.
(5) Marburg: This chair has been held since 1869 by Friedrich Wilhelm Jacob Justi, Karl Friedrich Geldner, Hanns Oertel, Jacob Wilhelm Hauer, Johannes Nobel and Wilhelm Rau (since 1858). Nobel (1887-1960) was a good connoisseur of Indian kavya, but the main idea of his research work was the Suvarnaprabhusottama Sutra a text of of the Mahayana Buddhism. (See: Jnanauk-tavali, Commemoration Volume in Honour of Johannes Nobel. Ed. by Claus Vogel. International Academy of Indian Culture, 1959, Sarasvati Vihara Series vol. 38, pp.7-16). Professor Rau, a Sanskrit and Hindi scholar,has published a book about State and Society in Ancient India (1958).
(6) Hamburg: The chair was founded in 1914 and has been occupied up to now by Sten Konow, Walter Schubring (an Honorary member of the International Academy of Jain Wisdom and Culture) and Ludwig Alsdorf (since 1950). Schubring devoted his life of research to the studies in Jainism, especially of the Jain canons. The result of his work appeared in 1935 as his book The Teachings of Jainism. Alsdorf also wrote on Jain-Problems. As Dr. Klaus Bruhn, a student of Ludwig Alsdorf, pointed out, Professor Alsdorf "made during his research of the Jain versions of 'Harivamsapurana' the important discovery that in the 'Vasudevahindi' of the Jain poet Sanghadasa there was to be found a new and so far unnoticed version of 'Brahatkatha', the famous fables that can be traced as far back as the poet Gunadhya (in: Harivamsapurana, Hamburg 1935). The final editing of the 'Vasudevahindi' is not published; individual problems of the text have already been published in a series of essays. The research into literary contents of the text have helped Alsdorf right from the beginning to study the linguistic developments through Prakrit and Apabhramsha as well as through the change-over from Apabhramsha to the modern Indian (in: Apabhramsa Studies, Leipzig 1937). Since the end of the war Alsdorf has been reconstructing and publishing the works by Heinrich Lüders about the Vedic Religion, half of which were destroyed by the war. The first part of this series appeared in 1951 (Varuna, Goettingen), the second part is now awaiting publication (Varuna and the Rta). This work mainly gives the evidence that Varuna is the God of oaths and therefore is, on the one hand, closely connected with water, since originally one used to swear in the name of water. On the other hand it stands in a specially close relation with Rta (i.e. truth, in the broadest sense of the word), the central idea in the Vedic religion. Alsdorf also published numerous works on problems in Philosophy, Literature, Historical religion within the Jain and the Buddhist literatures. It is of course not possible to mention them here in detail. He has also written a large number of works on geography and history, meant for another class of readers, so "India, Bharat-Pakistan-Ceylon" 1955. (See: The Voice of Ahinsa, 1956, No. 10, p. 400).
The interest in India, in the accomplishments of Indian intellectuals and spiritual leaders and in the problems of the Indian people continues unabated. And without exaggeration it may be said that European indology without the contribution of German scholars would have remained utterly incomplete (H. W. Schumann, 1. c).
In the recent years, a great number of German scholars who, in fact, were inspired by the works of Max Mueller and the other giants of the German indology, came to India and undertook a serious study of ancient India's culture, literature and tradition. These scholars, after successfully completing their studies, made original contributions - which again enriched the Indology departments of the German universities. So, the German universities have become places of pilgrimage for the students of Indology and ancient Indian culture. This does not mean that the German students are interested only in the ancient Indian literature and culture. They are equally eager to know and learn about the modern India.
II. German Studies in Jainism
Then speaking of the Sanskrit studies in Germany, one must not neglect to mention the German studies in Jainism. Among celebrated Indologists are such names as Max Mueller, whose translation and publication of the Rigveda turned out to be significant not only for the interest in Indian thought and religious belief in Germany and Europe but even in India, Rudolph Roth and Otto von Boethlingk, who created the lexicographical prerequisites for the further development of Indology, and a host of others, who attempted to open the vast treasure-house of Indian thought and philosophy to their own countrymen and others. Even today, as we have seen, a large number of German scholars are carrying out arduous intensive research in various Indian systems of thought which one day might throw new light on the subject.
Without being guilty of exaggeration one can safely lay that for a certain period Germany was foremost in the field of Jain studies just as France took the lead in the early days of Buddhology.
Studies in Jainism in Germany have not been undertaken in isolation. On the contrary it was found necessary to study Jainism like other well-defined religions of a later period to study how it emerged gradually out of a common background of Indian life and thought and how the original relationship was afterwards reinforced by an exchange of ideas with the other religious systems. In this sense any contribution towards knowledge of Jainism adds to our knowledge of the Indian genius.
Here mention is made of German and only German works. This selection though not comprehensive is justified with respect to the linguistic medium: almost all these publications are written in German and are likely to escape notice in India where English is the best known European language.
The pioneer was H.Th. Colebrook whose "Observations on the Sect of Jains" in 1808 marked the beginning of Jain studies. Half a century later, Albrecht Weber (1825-1901), who edited the White Yajurveda under the patronage of the East India Company, published his monograph “On the Satrunjaya Mahatmyam” in German. Weber's treatise inaugurated a critical study of Jainism in general. The author was then Professor for Sanskrit at Berlin University. The outcome of his study is incorporated in two later works: in his publication "On the Sacred Texts of the Jains" (in: "Indische Studien" XVI and XVII, 1883 and 1885) and his Catalogue of the Sanskrit and Prakrit MSS of the Royal Library of Berlin (1892). “On the Sacred Texts of the Jains” forms the first authenticated information about the Shvetambara canon which reached the West. In the Catalogue 259 Jain MSS are listed, analyzed, and edited in specimens.
While Albrecht Weber's work in the vast field of literature, unknown up to that date, can be described as a stock-taking, with Hermann Jacobi (1850-1935) Jain studies enter a new stage with the critical editions and translations of many canonical as well as post-canonical texts of Jainism. Unlike the studies of earlier scholars, Jacobi's “Introduction to the Kalpa Sutra” (1879) showed for the first time that Jainism is absolutely independent of Buddhism. While Jacobi was a Professor at Bonn University, on his second trip to India in the winter of 1913-1914 he discovered most valuable Jain texts. He was also a specialist in Indian epics, poetry, philosophy and astronomy.
Hermann jacobi's contemporary, Ernst Leumann, who was at Strasbourg, went a step further and implemented the study of the single texts by investigation into the interrelation and stratification of the works. Literary parallels are traced and Jain tradition is seen in the context of Indian tradition in general. Leumann (1859-1931) started a “Survey of the Avashyaka-Literature”, which was posthumously published as a voluminous fragment in 1933.
We owe The Doctrine of the Jains - based entirely on canonical texts of the Shvetambara (published in 1935) to Ernst Leumann's pupil, Walther Schubring (born 1881), who held the Hamburg Chair of Indology from 1920 to 1950. Schubring's book and Ernst Windisch's “History of Sanskrit Philology”, published in 1917, demonstrate most clearly the continuous progress of the research work in the 19th century and the early 20th century. Schubring wrote a catalogue of the Jain MSS. in the Prussian State Library in Berlin (1944) and is now in charge of "The Cataloguing of Oriental Manuscripts in Germany".
Ludwig Alsdorf (born 1904) of Hamburg University continued Hermann Jacobi's work in the study of the Apabhramsha language and literature. His study included a short discussion of the Prakrit and Sanskrit portions of the “Kumarapalapratibodha”. The new testimonials for the "Indian origin" of the Arabian Nights are also traced in Jain Literature. After an extensive research Ludwig Alsdorf comes to the conclusion that the Shvetambara and Digambara versions of the Universal History (History after the 63 great men) have a common source and that this source is independent of the literary Brahmanical works like Harivamsapurana and Mahabharata.
Klaus Bruhn, a research scholar of Poona and a pupil of Walther Schubring and Ludwig Alsdorf, now at Hamburg University, discusses in the last part of his study “A Contribution to the study of the Jain Universal History” several general problems chiefly concerning the relationship of the Jain legends and the legends of the Brahmanas and Buddhists. (See his contribution to the Indo-German Special Number of The Voice of Ahimsa, Vol. VI, No. 10, 1956: Jain studies in Germany).
In “The Polemics of the Buddhists and Brahmans against the Jains” Helmuth von Glasenapp of Tübingen University traces many points of dogmatical controversy. His masterwork on Jainism has been translated into Gujarati under the title "Jain Dharma" (1930).
Frank Richard Hamm, pupil of Walther Schubring, has furnished five new versions from Jain literature and shown that the Jain texts resemble the Buddhist, not the Brahmanical, tradition.
Joseph Friedrich Kohl, a pupil of Willibald Kirfel, and now Assistant professor at Würzburg University, published “Das physikalische und biologische Weltbild der indischen Jaina-Sekte” in 1956, a learned paper in German on Jain research, which appeared as No. 3 of the well-known Jaina Academy Publications in 1956 in Aliganj. Kohl's contribution to the research work is “The Suryaprajnapti” (1937). According to the introduction, the textual relationship between the cosmographical Upangas has been brought out.
Charlotte Krause, Deputy Inspector General, Women's Education in Gwalior (retd.), has prepared a list of the Jaina Manuscripts of the Scindia Oriental Institute, Ujjain. In “Jain Literature and the Mahakala Temple” she has tried to clear up misconceptions about two Jain legends. In her “Ancient Jaina Hymns” (English) Charlotte Krause gives a critical review of eight Shvetambara stotras - seven in Sanskrit and one in Apabhramsha.
Gustav Roth, now in Göttingen, formerly research scholar in Patna, has tried to explain the rare term "Mohanagrha" occurring in Prakrit texts, in Kautilya's Arthashastra and in the Annals of Tabari as meaning a labyrinthine structure enclosing one or two 'Garbha griha'. Roth published as a Jaina Academy publication the book “The Historicity of the Jain Tirthankaras”; he is an Honorary Member of the International Academy of Jain Wisdom and Culture. Another Honorary Member of the Jain Academy, Klaus Fischer, wrote an outstanding book on Jain Architecture and Art: “The Caves and Temples of the Jains”, published by the World Jain Mission in Aliganj, contains a brief survey of Jain Art and 104 pictures of prominent Jain caves and temples. An honorary doctorate was conferred on Klaus Fischer by the Jain Academy.
Otto Stein, formerly of Prague University, who died in 1945, wrote treatises on Jainism, mainly based on lists of names occurring in the Agama, and covers a large number and variety of subjects.
Walther Schubring's (mentioned earlier) Isibhasiyaim, one of the oldest Jain texts, gives the utterances of Rishis. No commentary on this work is known to exist and Schubring's text is based on an Indian edition and on a modern manuscript. He has also listed the Jain Manuscripts of the Prussian State Library, new acquisitions since 1891, which include 1127 religious Jain texts in Indo-Aryan languages.
Theodor Zachariae, formerly of Halle University (died in 1934), points to information about the Jainas from authors of the 16th and 17th centuries in which references to the Jains made by Persian, Portuguese, Dutch and other authors of that period are made. They do not add much to our knowledge, but his numerous quotations are Interesting for the student of Indian culture.
Lothar Wendel, Professor at the Birla Education Trust in Pilani, published in 1960 as No. 6 of the Jaina Academy Publications his book “Thought, Life and Humanity”, which compares the Jain thought with Western ideals. Wendel is a disciple of Champat Rai Jain who was a man of dynamic faith and as such of synthesising thought. He sees common features in the basic philosophical conceptions of Jainism, of Goethe and even of an eminent Protestant theologian like Paul Tillich (see Kamta Prasad Jain, Foreword to Wendel's book, see further Helmuth von Glasenapp, Das Indienbild deutscher Denker, 1960, p. 222).
Wendel also contributed several articles to “The Voice of Ahimsa”, e. g. “Champat Rai Jain and the German Spirit” (Vol. VI, No. 10, 1956). Here, he pointed out that for the German reader Champat Rai Jain's books have still a particular attraction. They are full of references to German philosophers with whom he was as much acquainted as with French philosophers like Henry Bergson.