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BUDDHIST SEMINARY TO BE STARTED IN BANGALORE
“Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, M. P., said in Bombay on Tuesday* that a Buddhist seminary would be started in Bangalore as a preliminary steps to spreading Buddhism in India.
Dr. Ambedkar, who has declared his intention to embrace Buddhism recently, said in an interview with P. T. I. that the Rajpramukh of Mysore had donated a five-acre plot which was situated in between the two well-known centres of learning, the Raman Institute and the Indian Institute of Science.
He said as a result of his two visits to Burma recently, all help—financial and technical—from the world Buddhist Mission and the Buddha Sasana Council, had been promised.
Dr. Ambedkar revealed that he had approached successfully for financial help to many people in the country and he would also shortly set out with the begging bowl for public contributions.
Training Preachers
With the money forthcoming, Dr. Ambedkar said, the seminary would be ready in about two year’s time. The main object of this institution would be to train preachers for propagating Buddhism among the common folk, he said.
Dr. Ambedkar said that students would be admitted to the seminary without consideration of caste, creed or nationality and would undergo courses in comparative study of religions and other allied subjects. He believed that no one could uphold Buddhism truly without studying the other religions also scientifically.
Dr. Ambedkar said the seminary would also have a press where Buddhist literature would be printed. A group of eminent scholars from all over the world would be engaged in translating Buddhist texts in Pali and other languages into English and they would be published by the seminary, he said.
*The 11th January 1955.