Bengaluru (Karnataka, India), April 19, 2016: Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah, noted Kannada and Jain scholar said that Jains are the pioneers in the field of Woman education and the 1st ever woman university in the world was established in A.D. 850 by the Rashtrakuta Jain kings. He further continued to say that this University was established in Tamil Nadu and more than 900 woman used to study in this university. Addressing a huge gathering of more than 2500 people at the banquet hall of Vidhana Soudha (the seat of the state legislature of Karnataka) as a part of the Mahavir Jayanthi (Janmakalyana) celebrations he in detail listed out the contributions of Jains towards the over all development of Kannada literature, art and culture.
Request for “Prakrit Unversity” – Prof. Hampana put forth a request to the Government of Karnataka for establishing an independent Prakrit University. He said that there are 13 Sanskrit universities in the country, but the irony is that there isn’t any Prakrit University in the country. Sanskrit was a language of the vidhwans (scholarly class), it is really good to see the importance given to Sanskrit at the same time equal importance has to be given to Prakrit as Prakrit was the language of the people and a lot of Jain literary works are composed in Prakrit.
Grants for Printing Kannada Jain Literary Works – Prof Hampana further continued and requested the the state Government to grant funds required for printing Jain literary works in Kannada . – Nitin H.P. & Jain Heritage Centres News Service