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________________ 24. Pura Tattva Acharya Shri Jin Vijayaji Mooni Shri JinVijayaji was a famous archeologist and an ardent lover of old arts. He was an exceptional person. He inspired establishment of many research institutions, libraries, series of publication of old books and related schools. He contributed very much in expanding the invaluable store of Indian culture. He was a lover of study since his birth and a great man of his age. Birth: He was born on 27th January 1888 at Rupaheli village of Hurda Taluka of Bhilwara District in Rajasthan. His generation was in warrior's line of Parmar community. Shri Birdhisingh (Vruddhisingh) and Shrimati Rajkunvar were his parents. His childhood name was Kishansinh. The elders of Mooni Shri JinVijayaji had participated in the Indian Independence revolution and hence the British who had killed several of his relatives also confiscated the family property. His grandfather had reached Rupaheli after living underground for several years. He could earn the sympathy of the local ruler and had established well in the village. The father of Mooni Shri was appointed as an officer in forest department. He had a distance of piles in his old age and he had received his treatment from the Jain mendicant Shri Devihans. Shri Devihans was very much pleased with the intellectual ability of the child Kishansinh. He instructed Birdhisingh to see that Kishansinh studies very well and very much and that he will bring the name of his family very high. The father of Kishansinh died in 1899 and the whole family was totally helpless. It was not possible to put the child Kishansinh for study in a school. Seeing this, the mendicant Devihans kept the child Kishansinh with him for his study. But mendicant Devihans met with an accident and he died within three months. Kishansinh was again in helpless condition. He had served Devihans very much and Kishansinh had deep desire for study and knowledge. Hence instead of going back to his home, Kishansinh went with one another mendicant Shri Gambhirmal and reached the village Mandya. He studied here for two and a half years. After this Kishansinh came to Chittore with mendicant Gambhirmal and stayed there only. He was doing agricultural work here. Here he came in contact with a Marwari Sthanakvasi mendicant. Kishansinh was always eager to know new things and the company of this Sthanakvasi Jain mendicant made him also a Sthanakvasi mendicant. Within much less time of his being a mendicant he committed to memory some books of Jainism. But his desire for study was very deep while there was no enough facilities for study. He, therefore, decided to leave this sect of Sthanakvasi after deep thinking and one night left the Upashraya. He came to the dilapidated houses of Ujjayini on foot and left his clothes of mendicant at the bank of Kshipra River. He stayed at Ratlam and nearby villages and then came to Ahmedabad with a view to take up further study. He, however, could not take study and at last, he came to meet one Samvegi mendicant named Sundarvijayaji at Pali village in Marwar. He adopted Dixa under him and accepted the name of Jin Vijayaji with which he was known till the end of his life. While moving after Dixa he came over to Beawar where he had contact with famous Jain Acharya Vijay VallabhSooriji. There were two or three Pandits with him and JinVijayaji joined with them in their movement to have further study in religion. His sphere of study went on expanding and he was much interested in research work in history. He studied VeerBhoomi Rajasthan and with that he wanted to know much more about the past days of Rajasthan. He studied with historical point of view all the hand-written books or leaf-writings could be available. During his stay at Mehsana for the rainy days he had the acquaintance of famous Jain Acharya Shri Kantivijayaji and his disciples Chaturvijayji and PunyaVijayaji. They helped Shri JinVijayaji very much in his studied. In the memory of Acharya Kantivijayaji, he started Shri Kantivijay Jain Historical Publication series and many important books were published in this series. The books were accepted and honored by many learned personalities. 126
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________________ After Dixa, he started writing articles in Gujarati and these were published in Jain Hitaishi and also in Mumbai Samachar. He obtained many books on the famous Jain Vaiyakaran Shaktayan from the stocks at Patan and prepares one exhaustive article. A list of Jain Bookstalls at Patan was also printed in the form of an article. Shri Jin Vijayaji secured unparalleled position in the field of Hindi and Gujarati publications for publishing these articles and books. During his stay at Vadodara, he edited a large book titled Kumarpal Pratibodh and published it. When Shri Jin Vijayaji was passing his monsoon at Mumbai, an institution named Bhandarkar Prachya Vidya Sanshodhan Mandir was established at Poona and accepting the invitation from their Shri Jin Vijayaji went to Pune after the monsoon at Mumbai. Here, he established Jain Sahitya Sanshodhak Samiti and started a research magazine named Jain Sahitya Sanshodhak alongwith a book series on the related subjects. Thus, Shri Jin Vijayaji's stay at Pune proved to be turning point in his life because he could meet the famous freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak and great revolutionary Shri Arjunlal Shethi. Shri Jin Vijayaji began to think of Indian independence with these acquaintances. He was deeply moved by the political ideas of Shri Lokmanya Tilak. He began to think in a different direction from here and after long thinking, he decided to leave away the life of Jain Shwetambar Moorti Pujak mendicant. He was under pains that the country was under British rule. He did not like to stay inactive in these circumstances and thought to take active part in freedom struggle. He declared his decision in the newspapers. Mahatma Gandhi then called him to Ahmedabad and Shri Jin Vijayaji started his railway journey. Mahatma Gandhi and the workers of Gujarat Vidyapith appointed him in archaeological section and from here, he began quite a new chapter of his life. He ceased to be Jain mendicant and now he was the Head of the archaeological department of Gujarat Vidyapith. He worked here for about eight years. His nature was revolutionary and hence his attitude and thinking took a radical turn. The large stock of books in the library of this section is the result of his selection of archaeological books of extra-ordinary importance. His beloved subjects were the history of old Gujarat and its languages, his discourses with intellectuals inspired him to study German language and know the German personalities. Gandhiji also approved his desire to go to Germany. With the inspiration from everyone and respecting the invitation of the learned German professor Harman Jakobi. Mooni Shri Jin Vijayaji went to Germany to 1928 and stayed therefore about one year and a half. He exchanged views with the learned professors of archaeology of Bonn, Hamburg and Lipitsing universities. He established Hindustan House in Berlin to consolidate friendship between India and Germany. This House became an important center for India-German contacts and other facilities and many leaders, students and merchants took its advantage. He returned to India by the end of 1929. He had two ways before him at this moment: One, to keep himself confined to languages, literature and studies and the other to play active role in country's struggle for independence. He put off the first option for the time being and took up the second option in 1930. Mahatma Gandhiji's Dandi March and salt movement began on thirteenth of March and Mooniji was atonce sent to jail for joining this movement. He came in contact with Shri Kanaiyalal Munshi in the Nasik Jail and they exchanged their views on the subjects of various studies. Even though Mooniji joined the freedom struggle of the country, his future was connected with the subjects of studies. He reached ShantiNiketan at Calcutta and there he had extensive discourses with the famous and foremost personality Shri Bahadursinh Sindhi who was most connected with Jain literature. As a result the plan of establishment of Sindhi Jain Gnanpith took shape and Mooniji accepted to give his services here and then Sindhi Book series began. The first book published in this series was Prabandh Chintamani. Shri Jin Vijayaji started Jain Boarding also in ShantiNiketan. The monetary burden for all this work was being borne by Shri Bahadursinh. Mooniji stayed here for about three years. The atmosphere of Calcutta did not suit to his health and he decided to shift his working field from Calcutta to Mumbai or Ahmedabad. He had to go Mumbai in these days for the major operation of Pandit Sukhlalji. With the hard pressure of Shri Kanaiyalal Munshi, Mooniji 127
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________________ Jin Vijayaji decided to co-operate in the working to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and connected the work of Sindhi Jain Granthmala with the working of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Mooniji began to do this dual work simultaneously. Mooni Shri JinVijayaji kept himself away from Quit India Movement in 1942. By this time, he was invited to consolidate the bookstalls of Jesalmer and he went there. He stayed here for about five months and prepared manuscripts of about 200 books. He then returned to Mumbai and joined to work as Director to guide the work of edition and publication of various books and help the students in their study for the degrees of Decorate. Mooniji was always concerned for the problems of the country as well as of the society. The problem of food-grains became very serious after independence and his attention was drawn to agriculture, physical labor and self-sufficiency. As a result, he obtained some land near Chaderia village in Chittore region from the ruler of that area and established Sarvodaya Sadhana Ashram on 28 April 1950. Mooniji then gave over this Ashram to Shri Vinoba Bhave when he came on his foot journey to Rajasthan. Rajasthan Puratattva Mandir was established on 13 May 1950 with the efforts of Mooni Shri JinVijayaji and he himself took up the work of its administration. He was, thus, attending the activities of agricultural development of the Ashram on one side and was working in Rajasthan Puratattva Mandir with total devotion on the other side. In 1952, he was selected as an honorary member of the world famous Oriental society of Germany. Very few Indians have got this honor. He was granted this honor in recognition of his research work on Indian language. In 1961, the Government granted him the award of Padma Shree. This was in honor of his study, research and publication of archaeological books particularly in Jain literature. The Rajasthan Purattva Mandir-i.e. archaeological school of Rajasthan was started in Jaipur and many hand-written as well as books of unusual importance on history and archaeology was collected there. The publication work was taken up on large scale. The Government of Rajasthan constructed a special building to make this institution a permanent one and Shri Mohanlal Sukhadia, the then chief Minister of Rajasthan had put it open in 1959. This could happen only because continued efforts of Shri JinVijayaji. This institution secured a place of extra-ordinary importance all over India on the subjects of Indian languages and archaeological information. Mooni Shri JinVijayaji was honorary director of this institute until 1967. Mooni Shri had special attraction for Chittore because its history is worth taking proud of. It was the place of rigorous penance and work place of the great-learned Jain Acharya Shri HariBhadra Sooriji. Mooni Shri JinVijayaji established Shri HariBhadra Soori Smarak Temple just opposite the famous fort of Chittore as a respect and honor to Shri HariBhadra Sooriji. To day, it is a place of pilgrimage of Jain community and a place of interest for other virtues. Mooni Shri JinVijayaji has also created Bhamasha Bharatiya Bhavan in the memory of famous charity maker Shri Bhamasha. Mooni Shri JinVijayaji established several institutions during his lifetime and many learned personalities, students and institutions received guidance and inspiration from him. Mooni Shri JinVijayaji was very weak at the age of 80. His eyesight was now very poor and yet he continued to work with the same interest and efforts for Indian archaeological study, Jain Darshan, old history of Chittore and also for national issues. Conclusion: In over all consideration we see that the whole life of Mooni Shri JinVijayaji was spent for the worship of Goddess Saraswati-the Goddess of knowledge. He inspired even the learned persons, research students and intellectuals in the subjects of archaeology, old India History and culture. He created 128
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________________ many institutions so that these studies may continue. He left many monuments, which speak of his learning and service to the society. He spent his last days at Ahmedabad, which was the main land of his activities. He was now very weak because of his old age. He passed away on 3 June 1976. A life-long practitioner in various studies and exceptionally learned personality in archaeology thus, made his way to heaven after living sufficiently long and bright life. 129