Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in Jain Bhandars at Patan

SR No.: 011005
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Lalchandra B Gandhi
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Publication Year: 1937
Total Pages: 591
Language: English
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 32 MB

Page 40

( 34 ) The palm-leaf collection of Sheth Hälābhāi contains a MS. of Jitakalpa-bphat-cūrņi by Sri Candrasūri copied in Samvat 1284 at the end of which there are a few verses in praise of Vastupāla. This, I think, is the only remnant of the vast collection made at the command of Vastupāla.
Leaving the past aside, I now come to the present collections in Pattan.
1. The first and foremost among these is the famous palm-leaf collection in the Sanghavi's Pādā. The collection belongs to the Laghupośālika branch of the Tapāgaccha. The collection, it appears, was put in order in the time of Munindra Soma and lastly by Ķddhisāgara in Samvat 1914. I have got the list of the MSS. prepared by him from a Jain. The list mentions three pețis or large boxes containing altogether 434 pothis. It is only a list of titles and very incomplete and inaccurate. Some fifteen MSS. from these were taken to Surat and one MS. (on Nyāya) was stolen away. When Dr. Bühler visited Pattan, he was not allowed access to this Bhandar; but he managed to get a list prepared of this collection by Nārāyaṇa Sāstrī of Surat. But it was not done accurately as is evident from Dr. Kielhorn's report on MSS., where he has singled out only 28 important works out of which 3 only are new. Dr. Peterson also tried his best to have access to this collection and examine for himself the MSS. before publishing the list prepared by the Sāstrī but could not. The Conference office then deputed a Šāstrī to prepare a list of the Jain Bhandars at Pattan. I got that list from the Conference Office and found it to be quite unreliable. It mentions 397 pothis.
Such being the case, I decided to prepare a detailed Descriptive Catalogue of all the palm-leaf MSS., as I thought it advisable to put once for all before the learned world what this Bhandar really contained. I have not only discovered many new and important Sanskrit and Prākrta works both Jain and Brahmanical, hithertofore either unknown or known to have been lost; but also quite an enormous bulk of Apabhramsa literature which, when published, would help us in pursuing an intensive study of this language, as it is the immediate source of many Indian vernaculars.