The Institute of Jainology was very fortunate to host the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Jain temple in Potters Bar. The event took place on Friday 7th May and was organised jointly with the Oshwal Association of the UK.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
V&A curator talk on 20 May 2010
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010We are excited to announce that the first Jainpedia exhibition will open on Friday 14th May at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (more…)
JAINpedia for schools
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Hello, my name is Colin Hynson and I am the Education Adviser on the JAINpedia project. I have been an education adviser to the Institute of Jainology for some years. As part of that role (more…)
Good start to 2010: the Bodleian images have arrived!
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010Words and paintings
Friday, October 23rd, 2009I am Nalini Balbir, the content director of Jainpedia, the academic consultant who is in charge of ensuring that what’s on the website is accurate, comprehensive and intellectually credible. I’d like to give you an overview of how I began studying Jainism and talk briefly about why manuscripts are so central to Jainpedia.
As a professor of Indian studies at the Sorbonne, my academic interests include not only Jainism but Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Theravada Buddhism, and Hindi languages and literature of the 20th century. Although I am fully involved with Jainpedia and have worked for some years with the Institute of Jainology and other institutions in the UK on Jain-related projects, my work in Jainism arose only towards the end of my undergraduate career. (more…)
First images!
Thursday, October 8th, 2009I’m very pleased to report that a few weeks ago we received nearly all of the digital images of the manuscripts we requested from the Wellcome Library.
You will be able to start appreciating the beauty of these artefacts in these small photos.
Manuscripts
A manuscript is made up of a number of folios. A folio is a sheet of paper or other material that has writing and sometimes an illustration on each side of the sheet. Each folio bears the handwriting of a scribe who used ink to write by hand. Many of the folios are also painted in full colour.
Kālakācāryakathā © Wellcome Library, London
For most of the manuscripts we’ll be displaying on the forthcoming full Jainpedia website, each page (one side of the sheet) has been photographed. Sometimes a manuscript will consist of only one or two folios, because of its age, its material or the conditions in which it was kept before being held in a professional curated environment. (more…)
JAINpedia and YOU
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009Hi, I’m Chetna Kapacee and I am the Outreach Consultant working on JAINpedia. Having been brought up as a Jain, I feel very honoured and privileged to be working on this project.
This is going to be one of the biggest Jain projects ever to happen in the UK and it follows on from the Jain Art from India – The Peaceful Liberators exhibition at the V&A in 1995, which many people in the Jain community still remember.
Alongside the development of the website, there is going to be a three-year programme of outreach work with the community. (more…)