You can listen to Nick at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0084t6r

The exhibition opened last month in the Nehru Gallery and is the first in a series of exhibitions at museums and galleries round the country.

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.

Rowan Williams outside the Jain temple

Dr Williams was given a guided tour of the temple and took great interest in its architecture and symbolism.

Approximately 300 guests from the Jain community, other faiths and the local Hertfordshire community listened to Dr Williams’s keynote speech after the tour.

Dr Williams is a most humble and learned man, and reflected on man’s enslavement of himself through his passions and therefore his need to enslave others.

I was delighted at the opportunity to present Jainpedia to him, which he found ‘fascinating’.

I hope that, through the interfaith dialogues we have undertaken, other faiths develop similar resources. We can then show the commonality in basic values and threads in religious thought that have existed throughout the ages.

More photos of the visit and further information can also be seen on the IoJ website.

We are very happy that the exhibition will feature 20 beautiful artefacts of Jain art, including folios from manuscripts, manuscript covers and large paintings. The themes of the exhibition will be the Jain universe, the Jinas and their disciples and monastic rules and morals.

The free exhibition will be open until the end of 2012 and there will be a programme of events running alongside. Look at Rajiv’s post on 5th January for some more information about these. Doubtless, he’ll be reminding you of these events and activities as they approach.

Curator’s talk

Rules of conduct for monks (detail), Uttarādhyayanasūtra, opaque watercolour on paper, Gujarat, India, about 1450. © V&A Images / Victoria and Albert Museum, London

One of the opening events will be a talk by Nick Barnard, Curator of South Asian art in the Asian Department. The talk takes place on Thursday 20th May at 1pm. Lasting under an hour, it’s free and will involve walking round the gallery looking at some of the Jain artefacts on display.

Jainpedia preview

Visitors to the exhibition will also have the chance to explore a special edition of the Jainpedia website, created specifically to support the items they will see in the gallery.

Though it won’t be a full version of the website, it will demonstrate some of the functionality and give a good idea of our approach to showcasing and contextualising these wonderful pieces of art and religion. You can think of it as a kind of preview of the website proper, though the full Jainpedia will have many more bells and whistles along with substantially more material.

The V&A and Jain art

One of the premier museums in the world, the V&A is world famous for the depth and breadth of its collections, its curatorial expertise and its innovative, fascinating exhibitions. They have a particularly rich Asian section, with South Asian artefacts displayed chiefly in the Nehru Gallery and surrounding rooms. The Jain collection is one of the most exquisite and important in the UK, with some significant items on long-term display.

Some of you may remember the exhibition The Peaceful Liberators – Jain Art from India, which opened at the V&A in 1995. This was a pioneering international exhibition of Jain art. The V&A website boasts a very good section on Jainism, which uses videos and personal testimonies, as well as text and interactive features.

The Jainpedia team is extremely pleased that the V&A has agreed to put on this exhibition to complement the Jainpedia website and we hope to see lots of you at the exhibition over the next eighteen months or so.

Main duties

The successful candidate will have the responsibility of ensuring all administrative issues linked to the project are being looked after and acted upon.

The project manager will work closely with JAINpedia project staff and consultants and will liaise with JAINpedia partner institutions and other organisations.

A vital workstream requires working closely with King’s College London to support the rollout of JAINpedia content for the main website. Related to this is a workstream involving the relaunched Jain Spirit and new Schools websites.

An important workstream will involve working strategically with Rajiv Anand, the Museum Consultant, to ensure that major exhibitions, related activity, marketing and PR, and  evaluation issues are covered and moving forward in a satisfactory manner.

The PM will also work on the educational and outreach side of the project by offering support to INSET schools sessions, managing the volunteers and providing administrative support to the travelling exhibition plan by taking and managing the bookings from venues etc.

Other details

The post will be based in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

The salary will range from £18-22k depending on experience.

To apply

Please send a full CV and covering letter to Usha Shah at the Institute of Jainology by email to the following address: Usha.Shah@Jainpedia.org

Please ensure your email arrives by 30 April 2010. Interviews are expected to take place in the following two weeks.

Cover of 'Discover Jainism'

My role in Jainpedia

Within the JAINpedia project it’s my job to make sure that the resources created for JAINpedia are also available for use in the classroom.

This will be done through a dedicated schools website running alongside the main website and through training sessions for teachers around the country.

Free teaching resources

The design for the schools website has been agreed. It will provide educational resources for teachers using the images and text from the main site. I have produced materials for religious education lessons already and I hope to create materials for literacy, art and design, and other subjects in the curriculum and across all key stages.

These resources will be free and will be in various forms such as PDFs and other downloadable resources for use on whiteboards.

INSET programme

I am also in the process of putting together an INSET programme that is being taken up by local authorities around the country. This INSET will focus on how to teach Jainism in the classroom.

Every participating local authority will also receive a free resource box that schools can borrow. The box will contain objects such as this:

Statuette of Mahāvīra

and this:

Śvetāmbara monk and nun dolls

These objects can be used in the classroom to enhance learning about Jainism.

I will be regularly updating this blog with news about the INSET programme and the schools website.

I was excited to get over 250 beautiful photographs in early January, which are currently being checked to ensure they meet our high standards.

Selected by Nalini, these folios include the entire manuscripts of:

• Jambūdvīpaprajnaptisūtra
• Karmakāṇḍa
• Yatipratikramaṇasūtra
• Hemacandra Vītarāgastotra.

Here is a brief overview of the Bodleian’s Jain holdings, extracted from a 2006 paper co-written by Gillian Evison (Bodleian Library); Nalini Balbir (Paris-3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle); Kanubhai Sheth and Dr Kalpna Sheth (Ahmedabad); and Dr Mehool Sanghrajka (IoJ). I have added the hyperlinks.

Bodleian Library, Oxford

The Bodleian has been collecting Indic manuscripts since the very earliest days of its re-establishment by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1602.The Bodleian Library’s collection of Sanskrit manuscripts and books undoubtedly owes much of its strength and depth to [East India Company] Colonel [Joseph] Boden’s foundation of a Sanskrit Chair in 1827, making this the oldest chair of Sanskrit in Britain. The University’s early interest in the study of Sanskrit and classical India gave rise to many opportunities for the Bodleian to build up its collection and it is now a repository of some 8,700 Sanskrit manuscripts, one of the largest known collections outside the Indian sub-continent.

Given the historical background of the collections, it is unsurprising that the particular strength of the Bodleian’s collection of Jain manuscripts lies in its holdings of texts in classical Sanskrit and Prakrit. The library has relatively few decorated manuscripts but many items of textual significance, which reflect the University’s long interest in textual scholarship.

The Bodleian has some 200 Jain manuscripts, the majority of which came to the library in the second half of the 19th century from 5 donor/vendors. There are 50 or so further manuscripts, which[,] although not by Jain authors, have been copied by Jain scribes, such as the 15th[-]century scribe Campalasa, and Bhūdeva, the 18th[-]century scribe who was responsible for a number of manuscripts in the Wilson collection. The latter items show all the distinctive design features found in the manuscripts of Jain texts and provide an insight to the breadth of material that was being produced by Jain copyists.

[The Bodleian's holdings, which cover a wide range of topics, derive largely from the following personal collections of nineteenth-century European enthusiasts for Indian culture:]

Horace Hayman Wilson

The earliest Jaina Prakrit and Sanskrit manuscripts to be acquired were bought in 1842 from Horace Hayman Wilson, Oxford University’s first Boden Professor of Sanskrit.

Sir William Walker

In 1845, Sir William Walker presented a collection of Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts to the library, which included Jaina items. The manuscripts had belonged to his father, Brigadier-General Alexander Walker, once Governor of Baroda, who died in 1832.

Dr. William Hodge Mill

In 1849 the Jain collections were supplemented by the purchase of Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts belonging to Dr. William Hodge Mill, formerly Principal of Bishop’s College, Calcutta.

Dr. Eugen Hultzsch

The largest collection of Jain manuscripts (over 140) came to the library with the purchase of Dr. Hultzsch’s collection of some hundreds of Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts in 1887.

Sir Monier Monier-Williams

In 1885 Horace Hayman Wilson’s successor to the Boden Chair of Sanskrit, Sir Monier Monier-Williams set up a research centre in Oxford, called the Indian Institute. The Indian Institute had its own library of manuscripts and printed books. The collection contained a collection of 39 Jain manuscripts, most of which had been given to SirMonier Monier-Williams by Professor Georg Bühler in 1878. When the Indian Institute Library came under Bodleian administration in 1927, its Jain manuscripts joined the existing Jain collections in the Bodleian.

Dates, materials and script

The majority of Oxford’s Jain manuscripts are written on paper in Jaina Devanāgarī script and have been bound in the European book style by the library during the late 19th and early 20th century by the library. The date of the manuscripts ranges from the 14th to the 19th centuries and the majority are in good condition[.]

Here is a description of some of the events we are planning or thinking about in conjunction with the Learning and Asia Departments at the V&A.

Exhibition Launch

There will be a private high-level launch of the JAINpedia display in the Nehru Gallery, to be held in the Hochhauser Auditorium in the Sackler Centre on a weekday or weekend evening. It will consist of lectures by eminent Jain academics and researchers such as Nalini Balbir. Nuns or monks will be invited to open the launch event with traditional recitations, hymns, prayers and blessings.

Details are yet to be finalised but there is the possibility of inviting a classical Indian musician to perform a traditional raga sometime during the programme. A slide show of JAINpedia manuscripts could be projected onto the platform screen during the musical performance. Light refreshments could be served before or after the event.

Intercultural Tours

There will be free guided tours of Jain, Hindu and Buddhist objects found in the various V&A galleries. Tours can be booked by any interested visitor, with members of the Jain community particularly welcome.

Curator talk in the Nehru Gallery and Indian Study Room

There will be a guided tour of the JAINpedia display and other South Asian collections found in the Nehru and Indian Sculpture Galleries and in the Indian Study Room. Small groups will be given an introduction to the museum’s flat art, textiles, contemporary painting, photographs and other related South Asian objects.

Jain Digital Treasure Hunt

Visitors who wish to take part in the treasure hunt come to the Sackler Digital Studio, where they are provided with a digital camera and a themed treasure hunt sheet. The sheet contains a list of 10 items or themes related to Jainism. Each person or group has to find all the 10 listed items scattered throughout the JAINpedia display and take a picture of each one. One theme could be fruit and vegetables, symbolising the Jain commitment to vegetarianism. After the group has collected images for all 10 themes, they come back to the digital studio where they upload their images into a prepared template, which can be printed out and taken away.

Inside Outing

Members of the public can attend a talk given by a curator on Jain manuscripts and the South Asian collections inside the V&A. The second part of the event sees the visitors being taken to the Oshwal Centre temple in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. A coach will be provided and a tour of the temple will form the focus of this part of the event. Light refreshments could be provided at the temple.

Rangoli

This event will happen at Diwali 2010.  A rangoli is a pattern created on the ground using coloured chalks, lentils, pulses and other biodegradable substances. A rangoli will be made in a V&A gallery by traditional artists from the Jain community. Rangolis relating to Mahavira or the Hindu gods Ganesh or Laksmi could be created.

Diwali Storytelling

This may happen either at the same time as the creation of the rangoli or as a separate event.  Professional storytellers will recount tales relating to Mahavira and why the Jain community celebrates Diwali. In this event intended for families, around three stories will be told on one day.

Volunteer Day

To support these events, we will be holding a volunteer day at the V&A on 9th January 2010. There are no spaces left now but please contact Usha Shah at ioj_usha@hotmail.com to be put on a waiting list if anyone drops out.

Jainpedia volunteers will be taken around the galleries on a tour of the South Asian collections and will be introduced to the Jainpedia display, logistics and events. Volunteers will be given a chance to ask questions and to learn more about possible career paths in the museum sector from Rajiv Anand, MA, Jainpedia Museum Consultant.

However……please continue to sign up for the email newsletter and to fill in the form to become a volunteer with Jainpedia over the holiday period.

Bea has created a quick process for you to complete if you’re interested in receiving a regular email newsletter and a short form you need to fill in if you want to express your interest in volunteering on the Jainpedia project. There’s scope to get involved in many different areas of the wider project as a volunteer, ranging from acting as a guide in exhibitions and going into schools to discuss Jainism with teachers and pupils to helping out behind the scenes with organising and running events or contributing to the website.

Both these forms are available on the right-hand side of the blog home page.

We’ll resume working on Jainpedia in two weeks’ time but for now I thought I’d fill you in on what we’ve been doing since the most recent blogs.

Design and functionality finalised

One of the main areas we’ve concentrated on has been finalising the designs and the functionality of the website. Functionality means what functions the website will have in various areas and pages and how it will work. For example, is it better to scroll up and down so you can read long articles or to see different pages one by one? Web users have different preferences and we’ve also considered usability, branding and design coherence, integrated functionality, consistency, legal requirements and accessibility.

Usability is a relatively new field of work, which essentially tries to improve how easy, efficient and satisfactory to use something is. Accessibility more or less means creating a digital product that is easy it is for everyone to use, including people who have a disability and users who do not use the latest computer to access high-speed internet facilities.

All of us on the web team have solid experience of usability and accessibility issues and we’ll be carrying out user testing later in the process to check our decisions are on the right lines and to guide the fine-tuning.

Web content production

Another area of work we’ve been continuing with is the production of content, in the form of articles, translations, transcriptions and descriptions of the manuscripts, and of the other material websites need. As you might imagine, this involves a substantial amount of planning, research, writing and editing. It’s a big job but we’ll get there in the end!

We are currently waiting to receive the digitised manuscripts from the Bodleian Library so I’ll let you know when they arrive, which I hope will be early in the new year.

Exhibition plans

Other members of the wider Jainpedia team have been finalising the exhibition proposals for the V&A and the British Library. We are all very excited by the plans for these ambitious exhibitions and associated events, and doubtless Rajiv will be telling you more in good time.

India trip

Finally, I’d just like to mention that Paul made a flying trip to Mumbai in October to give a talk on the Jainpedia project courtesy of the IOJ. He spoke for about 40 minutes to thousands of people, which was very nerve racking! I hear it went well, however, and the audience was very interested in and enthused by the slides he showed them.

Last but not least

Until January then, I’d like to thank you for your interest in the project and to ask you to return here for more news as we enter 2010 and approach the launch of Jainpedia.

And I’d like to end for now by wishing you a safe and happy break with your loved ones in the snow!

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.

Discovering Jain studies

My mixed French and Indian origins mean I have been familiar with Indian culture since my childhood, but Jainism was totally foreign to me until I started my studies in Indology. The Indian part of my family is Hindu and whenever they mentioned Jains it was not necessarily in very friendly terms…

At school in France, I focused on classical languages: Latin and Greek. By the time I reached university, Sanskrit came

The god Rama sits atop the monkey king Hanuman to fight the demon king Ravana in the Hindu epic Râmâyana.

into the picture, as a sister language of Latin and Greek. Comparative linguistics became a fascinating subject for me. But I found that I could not be interested in Sanskrit only for its grammar and words and so I started to study it systematically in order to read the texts. Evocative childhood memories of my father telling me lively stories involving jungles and armies of monkeys sparked an interest in reading the Hindu epic Râmâyana.

At this stage, I realized that what I wanted to do was to study something that would combine past and present, languages and literatures, religions and so on. Even though Indian culture was something with which I’d grown up, studying the diverse languages, cultures and religions of the subcontinent hadn’t really occurred to me before I began learning Sanskrit.

It so happened that one of my Sanskrit professors at the university was Colette Caillat (1921-2007), a renowned scholar of Jainism. She easily convinced me that Jainism was the field I was looking for, a rich one where much was yet to be discovered and done.

My first experience of Jain manuscripts

When I was in need of a topic for a PhD dissertation, Mme Caillat showed me the Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts in Strasbourg (1975), which had recently been published by Candrabhal B. Tripathi (1929-1996). There she located one manuscript: a collection of eight stories in Sanskrit about giving alms to the Jain monk. This was marked as unpublished so we ordered photographs of it and of a few similar manuscripts.

I had never worked with manuscripts before. I had no choice but to read and transcribe. This is how it all started.

The following summer, I was sent to Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Sitting at my table at the L.D. Institute of Indology, an impressive library of manuscripts, I worked on my text. Going through the printed catalogues and the mass of catalogue cards in the library, I could trace additional manuscripts of the eight stories and even a manuscript of a Gujarati version. It finally emerged that what had initially seemed a rather modest collection of stories had actually been quite popular and had been the subject of several scholarly rewritings. My work became a critical edition and a comparative study of the various versions of the stories.

Working with other Jain scholars

Though I have spoken Hindi since childhood, while working towards my PhD I improved my knowledge of Sanskrit and Prakrit. I also learnt the skills of reading manuscripts and how to read Gujarati. In addition, I came to know a few important people who happened to be specialists in Jain manuscripts. They kindly transmitted their knowledge to me and became good friends: Candrabhal Tripathi and Kanubhai V. Sheth are among the most important. D.D. Malvania (1910-2000), H.C. Bhayani (1917-2000) and Prof. K. Bruhn are always thought of with respect and admiration.

Acharya Vijayashilacandrasuri, a Shvetambara monk and scholar from Gujarat, active and good-humoured

Over the years, as my scholarly career progressed and my knowledge of Jainism deepened, my professional relations with Candrabhal Tripathi and Kanubhai V. Sheth became closer. Our association culminated in the Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts of the British Library, V&A Museum and British Museum (published in 2006). This work took several years to finish and working on it proved to be a real experience and discovery.

Earlier I had worked on different manuscripts of the same text. Now I was working with many different manuscripts of so many different types of writing, such as stories, prayers and teachings of Jain doctrine. Embarking on such a task, I realised afresh the importance of the physical aspects of the document itself, such as the material of the manuscript, the calligraphy of the individual scribe and the skills of the painter. I was strongly reminded of how such aspects influence the way the words themselves and their content are received by new readers or listeners.

When one reads a printed text, one sees something complete. Reading the manuscripts, one realizes that texts can be transmitted as individual chapters. This makes a difference to the reader or listener.

The importance of the artwork

The London institutions hold especially rich collections of Jain manuscripts. In particular, they have an important number of manuscripts with colourful paintings. In our catalogue, we have tried to give an impression of this through colour plates and a CD.

Using the visual arts is a fundamental teaching method in the Jain tradition. In the days of restricted literacy, teachers would use paintings to help explain religious and philosophical ideas and stories. These paintings are often beautiful because they have to be attractive to the reader of the manuscripts. And those who could not read the texts could understand the ideas and be inspired by the beauty of the artwork.

Tortures and pleasures as depicted in an Uttarâdhyayana manuscript from the British Library

One of the motives of the Jainpedia project is our desire to share this beauty with all those who visit the website. Our aim is to show these paintings in detail and to make the most of the information we give in the encyclopaedia articles by linking them closely with the images.

When Jain monks want to explain the Jain concept of the universe, they use language but without the colourful diagrams and illustrations how would all this be clear? Painting is as telling as words, if not more. This is the principle we want to apply in Jainpedia.