Luigi Pio Tessitori
This essay by Dr. Luigi Pio Tessitory was completed on 16th November, 1917 at Bikaner and published by Shri Vriddhichandraji Jain Sabha.
I.
If I were called upon to express my opinion - of whatever value my poor opinion may be - concerning the Jain Ācārya Vijaya Dharma Sūri, I should not hesitate to say that he is the most noteworthy figure of whom the entire Jain community of India may boast at the present day. As a Jain scholar, he has a knowledge of the Jain religious texts which is unrivalled; as a Jain monk he combines in himself the strictest observance of the monastic vows with a liberal interpretation of the spirit of the religion which is unprecedented; as a Jain Ācārya, a preacher, and a propagandist, he possesses a power of argumentation, persuasion, and conciliation, which is marvellous. But the most remarkable of all his accomplishments are his broad-mindedness, which is more like a Western scholar's than a Jain monk's, and his indefatigable activity.
Unlike the other monks, who enclose themselves within the narrow circle of their daily religious duties and the company of a few disciples and devout correligionaries, and refrain from any connection with heterodoxes, whom they look upon as impure, impious, and sacrilegious, and whom they would interdict from their temples, their books, and their surroundings, Vijaya Dharma Sūri extends his broad sympathy to all men of all creed's, castes, and nationalities, and is ever ready to learn and accept from them, all that is good and true. As a scholar, he is an admirer of the Western critical method, and the European student of Jainism who undertakes to edit or translate a Jain work always finds the Ācārya ready to help him with the loan of manuscripts and with advice and explanations.
His activity, which is more than extraordinary in a country like India, where the people in general are more inclined to drowse and doze than to wake and work, has explicated itself far and wide from the sandy shores of Kathiawar to the green plains of Bengal, and has resulted in the creation of a number of educational and philanthropical institutions such as schools, presses, libraries, and hospitals, in the publication of an important part of the Jain literature which had hitherto remained ignored, in the issuing of periodicals, and, I believe, in the inaugurating of a modern spirit in the Jain social and religious life, which will be continued and the full importance of which will be better realized after a few years. In fact, I do not doubt for a moment that the new tendency initiated by him will be continued. He has surrounded himself with intelligent and zealous disciples who have absorbed from him his broad ideas and his enthusiasm, and are now helping him in his work, and it is only reasonable to presume that when he will be no more, the example set by him will be perpetuated by his disciples and by his disciples' disciples.
Though Vijaya Dharma Sūri is very well known to all Orientalists in Europe whose sphere of work is directly or indirectly associated with Jainism - and he reckons amongst his friends Dr. F. W. Thomas, Prof. H. Jacobi, Dr. J. Hertel, Dr. A Guerinot, etc., - yet I am so far the only European who has had opportunities to know him intimately in his own surroundings. I have visited him four times during the last three years, and every time his extraordinary personality has aroused in me more interest and admiration. I have known him as a scholar, I have known him as an orator, I have known him as a monk, and, though he is not permitted to yield to feelings of worldly affection, I think I can say that I have also known him as a friend.
In the cells of the upāśrayas I have sat by his side listening to his explanations of philological or philosophical difficulties which had been puzzling me; in the open halls of the dharmaśālās I have listened to his sermons delivered in Hindi or in Gujarati before a motionless and ecstatic audience, and have admired his simple and yet subtle and forcible eloquence; in the temples, I have been taken by him right before the marble idols and have read with him the Sanskrit inscriptions engraved on their basements. It is to him that I am indebted for having had an insight into the monastic life of the Jains which probably no European ever had before.
At Sivganj I have seen him pull off the hair of his chief disciple, Indra Vijaya Upādhyāya; in Udaipur I have seen him consecrate two new monks; in the dharmaśālā of Ranakpur, where the evening dusk was fantastically lit up by fires blazing in the courtyard, I have watched him performing the pratikramaṇa with his monks; in the stony forests of the Aravalli I have accompanied him in his vihāras, walking by his side in the middle of the cluster of his white-clad disciples; in Kathiawar, I have entered with him the village of Talaja amongst the festoons, the flowers, the scattering of rice, and the jè jè s of the entire population, and have made with him the pilgrimage to the sanctuary on the top of the hill, without omitting to visit the ancient Buddhist caves which adorn the sides of the mountain.
It is a matter of regret, but not of great surprise, that the merits of this extraordinary monk have been better recognized in Europe amongst the circle of Jainologists and other Sanskrit and Prakrit students, than in India itself. He has been honoured, it is true, by the distinguished title of Sāstraviśārada Jaināchārya conferred on him by the consensus of a large number of pandits from all parts of India, and lately also by his election as an Associate Member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; but this is scarcely all that he deserves, and his popularity, though very-great amongst the Jains of India, is not such as it ought to be amongst the non-Jains. Yet his activity has never been confined to the Jains alone, and everyone knows that his Yaśovijaya Jaina Pāṭhaśālā of Benares admits students of all castes and creeds, much as the volumes of his Yaśovijaya Jaina Granthamālā are sent to all the important libraries and colleges, Jain and non-Jain, all over the country.
Perhaps the blame for this inadequate recognition of his merits does not so much rest on others as on himself, for just as it befits a monk, Vijaya Dharma Sūri is a humble and unpretentious man, and it is a common experience that honours and popularity do not often fall in lot to those who do not seek or care for them. It will be a cause of some surprise to people in India, to know that Orientalists in France and Italy have taken such an interest in the life and work of the Jaināchārya as to feel tempted to write biographical accounts of him in scientific Oriental Journals. Dr. A. Guerinot of Paris has done it in the Journal Asiatique (xvi, pp. 583 ff.), and Prof. F. Belloni-Filippi of Pisa in the Giornale delta Società Asiatica Italiana (xxiv, pp. 165 ff.).
Not so much in order to follow their example, as in order to do justice to the merits of the man, I propose to give here an account of his extraordinary career, with the help of a biography which is now being published - in Hindi - by Muni Vidyā Vijaya, one of the Ācārya's most devout pupils. Vijaya Dharma Sūri was born of a humble Vaiśya family of the Vīsā Śrīmālī clan, at Mahuwa in Kathiawar, in the year 1868. His father's name was Rāma Chandra, and his own name Mūla Chandra. The fact that Rāma Chandra had a numerous family - three sons and four daughters - and that Mūla Chandra was the youngest amongst the former, greatly accounts for the comparative neglect in which he was left by his parents since his early boyhood. He grew up like a child of the streets, and when he was big enough to be of some use, his father, instead of sending him to school, took him into his shop to help him in his daily work.
So far, Mūla Chandra had had no opportunity to educate himself, nor to develop the seeds of his real vocation which were lurking in the fertile, but uncultivated, soil of his mind. On the contrary, he had been feeling rather a dislike for learning, and his only interest was in gambling, a vice to which he became very strongly addicted even in that early age. But this vice, which would have ruined any other, eventually proved his salvation, for one day, when he had lost a large amount of money, and had been strongly rebuked by his parents in consequence, he began to think of the instability of fortune, the vanity of possession, and the greediness for money which had caused his parents to punish him, and himself to displease his parents. From that day he took an aversion to the world and began to think of the bliss of a life of seclusion. The voice of his vocation had spoken in him, and though many days were still to elapse before his initiation as a monk, yet he had already made his resolution, and every day that passed made him firmer and firmer in it.
At last one day, without telling anybody where he was going to, Mūla Chandra left his paternal house and went to Bhavnagar in search of a preceptor who would give him the happiness he was longing for. The monk Vriddhi Chandra was preaching there. Mula Chandra sat before him, and listened to the sermon which had for its subject the verse:
Thou fool who fearest Death, dost thou believe
That because of thy fear Death will thee leave?
Only him who is never born Death cannot reach:
The chain of reincarnation thou shouldst cleave. [1]
At the end of the sermon, Mūla Chandra went near the preacher and at once manifested to him his desire to be initiated as a monk. The prudent Vriddhi Chandra, considering the young age and the condition of the applicant, refused to comply with his desire and advised him to go back to his parents and obtain their consent. This Mūla Chandra did, and after overcoming all the objections raised by his father and the tears of his loving mother, came back to Vriddhi Chandra with his father's consent and was consecrated a monk, under the name of Dharma Vijaya, the 12th of May of the year 1887.
He was then only a young and ignorant boy, and his preceptor could not find any better employment for him but send him to collect alms and fetch water, and utilize him for general menial services. His mental capabilities were so limited at that time, that when at the instigation of his preceptor, he began to study the Pratikramana Sūtra, it took him not less than one-and-a-half years to learn by heart two pratikramanas, which is only as much of the text as an ordinary student can easily master in about one month. But his intelligence was not dull, it was only dormant. Stimulated by the example of his preceptor, who was a monk of some learning, Dharma Vijaya soon began to feel ashamed of his ignorance and to desire to be initiated in the study of the Sanskrit and Prakrit literature. Vriddhi Chandra was only too glad to foster his pupil's noble desire, and made arrangements for him to learn Grammar under the guidance of a competent teacher.
The rapidity with which Dharma Vijaya mastered the Sārasvata Chandrikā was simply marvellous considering his slow comprehension, and he himself was astonished at his success, and humbly attributed it all to the merits and ability of his preceptor. - From the study of Grammar he passed to that of the Jaina Sutras, the canonical texts of the Jain religion, and the difficult Prakrit in which these are written, proved no stumbling-block to his enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, contemporaneously with the progress of his literary studies, another strong liking had grown in the mind of the young monk, a liking for polemics. Vriddhi Chandra was a good preacher, and the sermons he was giving before the assembly of the devout Jains, as well as the private disputations he was having with orthodox and heterodox visitors in the upāśraya, were deeply engaging the attention and the interest of Dharma Vijaya, who soon began to feel a desire to become a preacher himself, not for any other reason, but simply out of that philanthropical feeling, so characteristically Jain, which had entered his mind since the very day he had assumed the garb of a monk, and has been inspiring his acts and life ever since.
What real and invaluable benefits to mankind the power of speech and persuasion can confer in a country where people are too lazy and apathetical to go and try to instruct themselves, and are therefore to be sought, and instructed, and persuaded often against their will; what wonders a man endowed with such a power of speech and persuasion can operate over the ignorant masses by raising them from their secular sluggishness, awakening in them an interest for all that is good and noble, and stimulating them to activity, and at the same time curing them of their gross superstitions, their petty-jealousies, their social prejudices, and thus make them fitter and happier; what a new life into the decaying, but not dying, body of Jainism could a preacher of influence and tact infuse by composing religious differences, spreading a correct knowledge of the principles of the religion itself, and causing the considerable wealth of the community to be spent in charitable institutions of public utility; Dharma Vijaya realized all this and made up his mind to become a preacher for the benefit of mankind. In this also he succeeded - and in which undertaking would a man of such an enthusiasm and determination not succeed! - and the day when he for the first time addressed the public, was such a triumph that everybody was surprised, including Vriddhi Chandra who had been watching his pupil's marvellous progress and was fully cognizant of the capabilities that were latent in him.
Unfortunately, Vriddhi Chandra was not destined to live long to watch his pupil's rapid career. He died in the year 1893, after a long illness borne with patience and resignation. Some time before his death, he had recommended Dharma Vijaya for the title of pannyāsa. Now Dharma Vijaya was left without his guide to be himself a guide to others, but he was already fully qualified to be his preceptor's successor. He left Bhavnagar at once and began to wander through the villages and cities of Kathiawar and Gujarat, preaching everywhere.
The first chaturmāsa, the four months of the rainy season when Jain monks are not allowed to wander about, but are required to halt in one place, was spent at Dimbri. The chaturmāsas of the following years were spent at Viramgam, Kaparvanaj, Sadri (in Marwar), and Patri. While halting at Kaparvanaj, Dharma Vijaya began the study of the Nyāya Śāstra, a study which he considerably perfected three years later during a chaturmāsa spent at Mhesana. During his halt at Patri he caused the tīrtha of Upariyala to be restored, and re-established the annual pilgrimage which, owing to difficulties arising from neglect, had long been discontinued.