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

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The well known collection in the Dhandhera Vādā belonging to the Śrīpūjya of the Punamiya Gaccha is now scattered. It was the subject of a law-suit between the present Srīpūjya and the Jain community of Pattan. No one knows where the MSS. have been removed but there is still a lingering hope that the MSS. may again see the light of the day. The collection, it is said, originally contained 400 dābởās or wooden boxes. The late Svarupcand Yati, the keeper of the collection, would allow no one to see his MSS. After his death a quarrel arose about the post of the Srīpūjya, and during the time some of the important MSS. were sold away to the agents of the British Officer in charge of the Operations for the Search of MSS. Mr. Dwivedi was allowed to see the collection and he suspected that some MSS. were kept back from him. I came across a list of the collection (containing about 50 dābdās) as it existed some 15 years back and found a fow titles like Yadusundara, Lalitavilāsa, Sura(?rā)gacandrodaya, not mentioned in his list. European scholars believed and still seemed to believe that this was the collection of the great lemacandra; but this is really a misconception. Hemacandra belonged to the Pūrņatalla Gaccha, while the keeper of the collection was of the Pūrņimā Gaccha. Mahimaprabha, a Srīpūjya of the Pūrņimā Gaccha in the Dhandhera Vādā, has written Ambada Rīsa wherein he traces his spiritual descent from Vinayasundara and not from Hemacandra. There were two other branches of this Gaccha, one at Chāṇasmā and the other at Lādol. The collection seems to have been very comprehensive in its scope and to have contained a large number of Sanskrit, Prūkita and Gujarāti MSS. most of them being written by the Yatis of the Gaccha; and hence correct. There were no palm-leaf MSS. and the paper MSS. too, I have reasons to believe, were not older than three centuries.
Pattan has, from the time of Col. Tod., attracted the attention of the MSS. workers; it has consequently been the working field of the agents of the MSS. searchers. The Bhandars in Pattan were formerly in the hands of the Yatis, who had also many MSS. with them as their private property. These MSS. they were enticed to part with by offers of large sums. The Brahmin munim? of the Sangha, also, I am told, sold away some MSS.;
I Clerk in the employ of the Sangha.