Known for Key of Knowledge Role Writer | Name Champat Jain | |
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Occupation Barrister, Religious Scholar Books The Key of Knowledge, Gems of Islam, The Jaina Law | ||
Champat Rai Jain (1867-1942) was an influential Jain writer and comparative religion scholar of the 20th century who contrasted Jainism and Christianity. He visited various European countries to give lectures on Jainism. He was conferred with the title Vidya-Varidhi (lit. Ocean of Wisdom) by Bharata Dharma Mahamandal (The India-Religious Association).
Contents
Life
Champat Rai Jain was born on 6 August 1867 in Delhi, India. He was married at the age of 13. In 1892, he went to England to study law. He was the founder of the Jaina mission in London. He died on 2nd June, 1942. He was a barrister-at-law, orator, writer, and attempted to explain Jainism with modern age psychology and science terminology.
According to Padmanabh Jaini, the colonial era Champat Rai Jain was an apologist of Jainism, defended the Jain doctrines that were criticized by Christian missionaries, and authored the first Jaina text aimed at the Christian world when Christian missionaries expressed frustration at Jain people with no pagan creator gods refusing to convert to Christianity.
Lectures
Champat Rai Jain attempted to present Jainism as a scientific religion, a knowledge that he claimed had neither dogmatism nor mysticism.
Jainism is a science, and not a code of arbitrary rules and capricious commandments. It does not claim to derive its authority from any non-human source, but is, science-like, founded on the knowledge of those Great Ones who have attained perfection with its aid. Scientific validity can be claimed neither by dogmatism nor mysticism; and it is unnecessary to add that nothing but science and scientific thought can be relied upon to produce immediate, certain and unvarying results.
Champat Rai Jain wrote in three main languages of his time: English, Hindi, Urdu.
English
Hindi
Urdu
Key of Knowledge
"Key of Knowledge", a book authored by Champat Rai Jain, was published in 1915. It was widely acclaimed among the scholars.
The Pioneer (on March 12, 1916) wrote: "Mr. Rai's book is singularly lucid and readable and not a word in it could give umbrage to the most sensitive votaries of the creeds discussed."
"The author's learning and breadth of outlook entitle him to patient hearing......"- The East and West—March (1916)
Vijay K. Jain, a modern Jainism scholar in the Preface of his book From IIM-Ahmedabad To Happines wrote:
Many illuminated works and teachings of great thinkers and sages of the past have repeatedly told us that we need to be able to distinguish between valuable gems and valueless stones, both of which are scattered along our way. One such valuable gem that I could lay my hands on, about a decade ago, was that amazingly comprehensive yet precise treatise The Key of Knowledge, by Champat Rai Jain. The book, first published in 1915, true to its title, has timeless pearls of wisdom in each of its 900-plus pages; one has only to have patience, and develop appreciation and understanding to pick them up. No other work that I know of treats of the great issues that confront humanity with the same simplicity, charm, ease, authority and freedom. As could be expected from a Barrister-at-Law of that era, he was a brilliant grammarian and logician; but more than that, he was a great philosopher.