Jagdish Kashyap
Encyclopedia
Bhikkhu Jagdish Kashyap was born in 1908 in Ranchi, Bihar
, India
; he died 28 January 1976. His birth name was Jagdish Narain, and the name Kashyap was given to him at his bhikkhu
ordination in 1933.
, was advised to study Pāli
, and so resolved to go to Sri Lanka
, to his parents' dismay. They relented in 1933 and he joined the Vidyalankara Pirivena
(now the University of Kelaniya
). He was ordained by Venerable L. Dhammananda Nayaka Mahathero. During his time at the Vidyalankara Pirivena he translated the Digha Nikāya
into Hindi
.
On a trip to Japan he was stopped by the police in Malaysia due to his involvement in Gandhi's non-cooperation movement. He spent a year living in Penong, learned some Chinese, lived in a Chinese vihara
, and published a collection of lectures.
In 1936 he returned to Sri Lanka to spend time in a forest hermitage to practice meditation
, which was quite unusual for a bhikkhu in his day, so much so that his teachers tried to dissuade him. Bhikkhu Kashyap continued to practice meditation throughout his life. Towards the end of 1936 he returned to India and in 1937 settled at Sarnath
where he was involved in scholarly and translating work, principally of the Pāli Canon
into Hindi. In Sarnath he became associated with the Mahabodhi Society and was soon helping with the institutional organisation and social services. He became the headmaster of a new high school founded by the Mahabodhi Society General Secretary, Devapriya Valisinha. While in Sarnath he also worked for Benares Hindu University to offer courses in Pāli - even occasionally walking the 22 mile journey into Varanasi
. Some accounts say this was because he persuaded officials to start these courses and even taught them from free, the accounts below varies slightly.
During this time Bhikkhu Kashyap took on a young English monk as a live-in student for about nine months. Sangharakshita
went on to found the Western Buddhist Order in 1968, and considers Bhikkhu Kashyap to have been an important teacher in both the spiritual and secular senses.
Sangharakshita's version of the Benares university job, as he understood from Kashyap:
In 1947 India became independent and there was a new sense of identity for Indians. In 1949 he toured his ancestral homeland, the ancient province of Magadha
, which was also the centre of ancient Buddhism. For the first time in many centuries the villages in Magadha saw a yellow robed bhikkhu, and were pleasantly surprised to find that he spoke their local dialect Magadhi. The locals had long forgotten their own history and Bhikkhu Kashyap was able to furnish many details. The very name of the state of Bihar
comes from presence of so many Buddhist viharas in the past. He was able to point out the true identity of the images of Buddhas
and Bodhisattva
s which were being worshipped as Hindu gods or local deities. Villages such as Sari-chak, near Nalanda
, had previously had an association with the Buddha's chief disciple Sariputta. Finally he was able, by quoting passages from the Pāli texts, to demonstrate that Magadhi is still closely related to the Magadhi dialect.
After this visit Bhikkhu Kashyap offered to teach Pāli at Gaya College and at Nalanda College in Bihar-Sharif. Later, when the Bihar state government decided to start an institute for Pāli studies at Nalanda, he was the obvious choice to head the project. In 1951 the institute became the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara.
1956 was the 2500th anniversary of the parinibbana of the Buddha, celebrated by the Indian government as the Buddha Jayanti. As part of the celebrations, Bhikkhu Kashyap's work of bringing out a Devanagari
edition of the Pāli Canon was accepted as an official project, and was jointly sponsored by the governments of Bihar and India. The first volume appeared in 1956 on the occasion of the Buddha Jayanti, and the rest followed over five years - guided to completion with enormous effort and marathon labour by Bhikkhu Kashyap. At one point he sold his house to pay the salaries of workers when payments had been delayed.
During the Buddha Jayanti project Bhikkhu Kashyap returned to Varanasi and in 1959 was asked to become the first Professor of Pāli and Buddhism at the Sanskrit University of Varanasi. He remained there until 1965 when he returned to Nalanda for a second term as Director of the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara. He retired in 1973. Having earlier developed diabetes, he became seriously ill in 1974 and spent his last two years bedridden in the Japanese temple in Rajgir
, from where he could see the Vulture Peak and the newly constructed Peace Pagoda
. He died in 1976.
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; he died 28 January 1976. His birth name was Jagdish Narain, and the name Kashyap was given to him at his bhikkhu
Bhikkhu
A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
ordination in 1933.
Education
- BA Patna College, 1929
- MA in Philosophy - Banares Hindu University, 1931.
- MA in Sanskrit - Banares Hindu University, 1932.
Biography
After finishing his MA, Bhikkhu Kashyap, desiring to doctoral work in Buddhist philosophyBuddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology.Some scholars assert that early Buddhist philosophy did not engage in ontological or metaphysical speculation, but was based instead on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs...
, was advised to study Pāli
Páli
- External links :* *...
, and so resolved to go to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, to his parents' dismay. They relented in 1933 and he joined the Vidyalankara Pirivena
Vidyalankara Pirivena
Vidyalankara Pirivena is one of the largest Buddhist pirivenas in Sri Lanka. Located in Peliyagoda, it is nearly 100 years old. Under the pirivena's leadership, several schools were started in the region; one is Sri Dharmaloka College, one of the primary colleges in the region....
(now the University of Kelaniya
University of Kelaniya
The University of Kelaniya is a state university of Sri Lanka. Situated just outside the municipal limits of Colombo, in the ancient and historic city of Kelaniya, the University has two major campuses, seven locations, six faculties and four institutions....
). He was ordained by Venerable L. Dhammananda Nayaka Mahathero. During his time at the Vidyalankara Pirivena he translated the Digha Nikāya
Digha Nikaya
The Digha Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the first of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism...
into Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
.
On a trip to Japan he was stopped by the police in Malaysia due to his involvement in Gandhi's non-cooperation movement. He spent a year living in Penong, learned some Chinese, lived in a Chinese vihara
Vihara
Vihara is the Sanskrit and Pali term for a Buddhist monastery. It originally meant "a secluded place in which to walk", and referred to "dwellings" or "refuges" used by wandering monks during the rainy season....
, and published a collection of lectures.
In 1936 he returned to Sri Lanka to spend time in a forest hermitage to practice meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
, which was quite unusual for a bhikkhu in his day, so much so that his teachers tried to dissuade him. Bhikkhu Kashyap continued to practice meditation throughout his life. Towards the end of 1936 he returned to India and in 1937 settled at Sarnath
Sarnath
Sarnath or Sārnātha is the deer park where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma, and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kondanna. Sarnath is located 13 kilometres north-east of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, India...
where he was involved in scholarly and translating work, principally of the Pāli Canon
Pāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
into Hindi. In Sarnath he became associated with the Mahabodhi Society and was soon helping with the institutional organisation and social services. He became the headmaster of a new high school founded by the Mahabodhi Society General Secretary, Devapriya Valisinha. While in Sarnath he also worked for Benares Hindu University to offer courses in Pāli - even occasionally walking the 22 mile journey into Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
. Some accounts say this was because he persuaded officials to start these courses and even taught them from free, the accounts below varies slightly.
During this time Bhikkhu Kashyap took on a young English monk as a live-in student for about nine months. Sangharakshita
Sangharakshita
Sangharakshita is a Buddhist teacher and writer, and founder of the Triratna Buddhist Community, which was known until 2010 as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, or FWBO....
went on to found the Western Buddhist Order in 1968, and considers Bhikkhu Kashyap to have been an important teacher in both the spiritual and secular senses.
Sangharakshita's version of the Benares university job, as he understood from Kashyap:
As he had already confided to me, he was there very much on
sufferance. Dominated as it was by orthodox brahmins, the University had not wanted to have a Professor of Pali and Buddhist Philosophy at all, and Kashyap-ji’s appointment had been due to the insistence of the multimillionaire philanthropist Jugal Kishore Birla, a benefactor whose wishes the University could not afford to ignore. But though the University had been forced to appoint a Professor of Pali and Buddhist Philosophy it was not obliged to supply him with pupils. In fact it made it as difficult as possible for him to get any. Under University regulations, no one could take Pali without also taking Sanskrit. In other words Pali and Buddhist Philosophy were not allowed to become alternatives to Sanskrit and Hindu Philosophy. One could take Sanskrit and Pali, or only Sanskrit, but under no circumstances could one
take only Pali. So effectively did these tactics limit the number of Kashyap-ji’s students that he never had more than three or four, sometimes none at all. For someone as devoted to his subject as he was this was a bitter disappointment. He had accepted the professorship only because he hoped it would enable him to make some contribution to the advancement of Buddhist studies and thus, indirectly, to the cause of Buddhism; but as it became more obvious every year that Pali and Buddhist Philosophy were unwelcome guests at the Benares Hindu University, he had come to the conclusion that he was wasting his time there and he was now thinking of resigning.
In 1947 India became independent and there was a new sense of identity for Indians. In 1949 he toured his ancestral homeland, the ancient province of Magadha
Magadha
Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...
, which was also the centre of ancient Buddhism. For the first time in many centuries the villages in Magadha saw a yellow robed bhikkhu, and were pleasantly surprised to find that he spoke their local dialect Magadhi. The locals had long forgotten their own history and Bhikkhu Kashyap was able to furnish many details. The very name of the state of Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
comes from presence of so many Buddhist viharas in the past. He was able to point out the true identity of the images of Buddhas
Buddhahood
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
and Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...
s which were being worshipped as Hindu gods or local deities. Villages such as Sari-chak, near Nalanda
Nalanda
Nālandā is the name of an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India.The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from the fifth or sixth century CE to 1197 CE. It has been called "one of the...
, had previously had an association with the Buddha's chief disciple Sariputta. Finally he was able, by quoting passages from the Pāli texts, to demonstrate that Magadhi is still closely related to the Magadhi dialect.
After this visit Bhikkhu Kashyap offered to teach Pāli at Gaya College and at Nalanda College in Bihar-Sharif. Later, when the Bihar state government decided to start an institute for Pāli studies at Nalanda, he was the obvious choice to head the project. In 1951 the institute became the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara.
1956 was the 2500th anniversary of the parinibbana of the Buddha, celebrated by the Indian government as the Buddha Jayanti. As part of the celebrations, Bhikkhu Kashyap's work of bringing out a Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
edition of the Pāli Canon was accepted as an official project, and was jointly sponsored by the governments of Bihar and India. The first volume appeared in 1956 on the occasion of the Buddha Jayanti, and the rest followed over five years - guided to completion with enormous effort and marathon labour by Bhikkhu Kashyap. At one point he sold his house to pay the salaries of workers when payments had been delayed.
During the Buddha Jayanti project Bhikkhu Kashyap returned to Varanasi and in 1959 was asked to become the first Professor of Pāli and Buddhism at the Sanskrit University of Varanasi. He remained there until 1965 when he returned to Nalanda for a second term as Director of the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara. He retired in 1973. Having earlier developed diabetes, he became seriously ill in 1974 and spent his last two years bedridden in the Japanese temple in Rajgir
Rajgir
Rajgir is a city and a notified area in Nalanda district in the Indian state of Bihar. The city of Rajgir was the first capital of the kingdom of Magadha, a state that would eventually evolve into the Mauryan Empire. Its date of origin is unknown, although ceramics dating to about 1000 BC have...
, from where he could see the Vulture Peak and the newly constructed Peace Pagoda
Peace Pagoda
A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii , a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order...
. He died in 1976.
External links
- My Eight Main Teachers A talk by Sangharakshita in which he describes his time with Bhikkhu Kashyap (amongst other teachers).