Kuvalayamala Part 2

SR No.: 002778
Original Sutra Author: Udyotansuri
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 368
Language: Sanskrit, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 12 MB

Page 13

ΧΙ
KUVALAYAMALA
yet to be developed. His mining firm, Messrs Dalchand Bahadur Singhi, is reputed to be one of the foremost colliery proprietors in India. While so engaged in manifold business, he also acquired and possessed vast Zamindari estates spreading over the districts of 24-Perganas, Rangpura, Purnea, Maldah, etc.
But the fame of Babu Dalchandji Singhi was not confined to his unique position in commercial circles. He was equally well-known for his liberality and large-heartedness, though he always fought shy of publicity attached to charitable acts and often remained anonymous while feeding the needy and patronizing the poor. A few instances of his liberality are given below.
When Mahatma Gandhi personally visited his place in 1926, for a contribution to the Chittaranjan Seva Sadan, Babu Dalchandji Singhi gladly handed over to him a purse of Rs. 10,000.
His War contribution in the first world-war consisted in his purchasing War Bonds to the value of Rs. 3,00,000; and his contribution at the Red Cross Sales, held in March 1917, under the patronage of H.E. Lord Carmichael on Government House grounds, Calcutta, amounted to approximately Rs. 21,000, in which he paid Rs. 10,000 for one bale of jute which he had himself contributed. His anonymous donations are stated to have amounted to many lacs.
In his private life Babu Dalchandji Singhi was a man of extremely simple and unostentatious habits, Plain living and high thinking was his ideal. Although he had been denied a long academic career, his knowledge, erudition and intellectual endowments were of a very high order, indeed. His private studies were vast and constant. His attitude towards life and the world was intensely religious, and yet he held very liberal views and had made a synthetic study of the teachings of all religions. He was also well-versed in the Yoga-darśana. During the latter part of his life he spent his days mostly in pilgrimage and meditation. Noted throughout the district and outside for his devoutness, kindness and piety, he is remembered even now as a pride of the Jaina community.
During the last days of his life, Babu Dalchandji Singhi cherished a strong desire to do something towards encouraging research in important branches of Jaina literature and publishing their editions scientifically and critically prepared by eminent scholars. But fate had decreed otherwise, and before this purpose of his could become a reality, 'he expired.
However, Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi, worthy son of the worthy father, in order to fulfil the noble wish of the late Dalchandji Singhi, continued to help institutions like the Jaina Pustaka Pracaraka Mandala, Agra; the Jaina Gurukula, Palitana; the Jaina Vidyābhavana, Udaipur, etc.; and also patronized many individual scholars engaged in the publication of Jaina literature. Besides, with a view to establishing an independent memorial foundation to perpetuate the memory of his father, he .consulted our common friend, Pandit Shri Sukhlalji, (formerly a Professor of Jainism in the Benares Hindu University), an unrivalled scholar of Jaina Philosophy, who had also come in close contact with the late Babu Dalchandji Singhi, and whom the latter had always held in very high esteem. In the meanwhile, Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi incidentally met the late Poet, Rabindranath Tagore, and learnt of his desire to get a chair of Jain studies established in the Viśva Bhārati, Shantiniketan. Out of his respect for the Poet, Babu Sri Bahadur Singhji readily agreed to found the Chair (provisionally for three years) in revered memory of his dear father, and pressingly and cordially invited me to organize and conduct the same. I accepted the task very willingly, and felt thankful for the opportunity of spending even a few years in the cultural and inspiring atmosphere of Viśva-Bhārati, the grand creation of the great Poet, Rabindranath.
During the period of 10 years of my Principalship of the Gujarat Puratattva Mandir,