Mohanlal Banthiya Smruti Granth

SR No.: 012059
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kewalchand Nahta, Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Darshan Prakashan
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 410
Language: Hindi, English
Classification: Smruti_Granth & Articles
File Size: 19 MB

Page 9

स्वः मोहनलाल बांठिया स्मृति ग्रन्थ
EDITORIAL
It gives me immense pleasure to edit the Commemorative Volume of Mohanlal Banthia who was an ardent lover of Jainism and a prolific writer on Jainistic studies. It was he who established a Jaina Darśana Samiti, an Institution of philosophical discourse, for the dissemation of Jain history and culture. This Institution was situated (and is still situated) at Dover Lane in south Calcutta at his residence. I was associated with him for a long time from the very inception of his Jaina Darśana Samiti. Scholars were generally invited to read papers in that philosophical discourse, and a discussion was generally followed after the reading of the papers. He used to run a Jaina conference or Seminar under the banner of that Samiti at different places of India in the presence of Acārya Śri Tulsi (later on Ganadhipati Gurudeva) wherever he used to stay for his caturmasyā. I was often asked to act as a secretary in order to organise the conference or Seminar on behalf of the Jaina Darsana Samiti.
In course of time from his Jaina Darśana Samiti a research proposal was made for undertaking a research project on the contents of the Jaina Agama texts or Jainism in general. The term kosa, or in English cyclopaedia, was suggested for the name of the project. The main plan of the project was to collect all sorts of material on a Jaina topic from all kinds of texts of Jain literature-be it Jaina Agama or other philosophical texts and commentaries. Under the garb of this project several volumes were prepared and published. The volumes like Lesya-kosa, Kriya-kosa, Vardhamāna Jivana-koşa, Yoga-kosa were published, and several other volumes were also prepared in his life-time. It is a huge task to execute such a stupendous project by a single-handed scholarship.
This project of cyclopaedia is not only a tremendous research project, it is unique in its nature and distinguished in its scholarship. The plan of the project is also unique. The decimal system is used for the classification of the subject as it is used in the library scierice. Knowledge of a particular subject is divided into nearly thousand small decimals within the orbit of a broad subject, For example, points of a subject are discussed in accordance with its etymology, description, different aspects of a subject and so on. Each point of a subject has references from Jain literature. This helps the readers to organise a dissertation for their respective doctoral degrees. In some of the works which are already published, we can visualize Banthiaji's scholarship for which a doctorate degree honoris causa can be conferred upon him.