Jaina System of Education.

• Author: KELTING, M. WHITNEY
• Position: Review

Jaina System of Education. By DEBENDRA CHANDRA DASGUPTA. Lala Sundarlal Jain Research Series, vol. XII. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 1999 [1979]. Pp. 134. Rs 200.

This volume is a reprint of a 1979 publication of a series of ten lectures presented in Calcutta in 1942. Each lecture is designed around a theme: brahmanic and arts schools; Jaina monasteries; Jain education of nuns, laywomen, and princes; vocational education; and Jain contributions to the arts and sciences. The essays look at the ways Jain texts describe and theorize about education during a period of over a thousand years, from the earliest extant texts in the first or second century B.C., to the medieval narratives of the great twelfth-century scholar-monk Hemacandra. It is a strength of these essays that the author articulates the continuum and connections between Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain educational systems and explores the relationship...