Jainism And Western World

SR No.: 269650
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Peter Flugel
Publisher: Peter Flugel
Total Pages: 7
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 4

three servants, which carried large sacks full of manuscripts. He said, he had opened a door, which usually would not be opened, and found yet more manuscripts. Then he took four) leave (with a smile.
Now the inspecting and cataloguing set about afresh, and the manuscripts that were now brought to light contained even more precious treasures than the earlier ones. Until February 3rd, we still had to work in the temple daily for about six hours, and could hand to the scribes more than 50 works for copying. All contained something new or very rare from the Brahmanic, Jaina- and Buddhist literature. One old catalogue of the library from the year 1780 proved to us that we had now seen everything. It contained several hundred manuscripts on palm leaves and some more on paper. The opening of this carefully concealed library was however not the only success which I had. I received many other lists from private libraries and acquired about fifty original manuscripts (Bühler 1883:503-32).
This account shows how Bühler used whatever means he had to gain access to the Jain bandhárs. Before receiving the second load of manuscripts an obviously very frustrated Dr Bühler wrote a letter dated January 29 to the Indian Antiquary reporting his earlier discoveries:
So I had to retract provisionally, putting a good face on it, and borrowed the most important manuscripts, partly to copy myself, and partly to have them copied. But I promised myself to pay the Jaina committee the anger back with interest. During the next days I worked calmly with Dr. Jacobi on the copy of the historical work, which I, because the characters were very archaic, wished to do myself. In doing so I made inquiries about the library in secret through my agent. But no one apart from the committee of the Jainas and the librarian had ever seen it. The reports were thus not very certain or clear.
At last my friend, the Shripuj. helped me. He too could not come to know anything directly, but he said: "If the books, which you have seen, did not contain all the sacred scriptures of our religion, then you have not been shown everything. For all our community libraries must contain the 45 Angas."
That was enough for me. I went to Thakur Juvansingh and told him seriously, that the Jaina committee wanted to make a fool of me. It would be all the same to me, whether the books would be shown or not, but I would report [this] to the Government. Likewise I asked the ministers to come to me and told them the same, only adding that, if the government authorities would come, they could lose their posts.
This, at last, had an effect. One of the ministers, who was himself a Jaina and a member of the committee, began to work on his colleagues, and after various turbulent meetings it was decided to show us the real library, since it couldn't be helped. However, one more trick was tried. The entrance to the real library, a large door made of stone, was painted over, and it was decided to guide me into the next vault where the books were kept which I had seen already, in order to convince me that nothing else was there.
All these pleasant things were reported to me by She Shripuj. Ile advised me to be very careful and not to step into the vault. But in case ! had to do it, he provided me with a detailed plan of all the vaults under the Parishnath (sic) temple.
Finally the day arrived when we were called again to the temple, It was January the 28th. The committee received me solemnly, led by the Jaina minister. The latter spoke exactly as predicted by the Shripuj. 1 decidedly refused to enter the vaults, to check whether there was still something there. Likewise I forbid my agents to go down and always repeated that the masters of the house would know best where the things were. When the minister saw that I could not be tempted, he stood up with a deep sigh, remarked that he wanted to look around down there himself. He stayed away for about half an hour. Then he retumed with
The Yatis here do not possess much more than we have got in Surat. They are very friendly and communicative. The Panch of the Osval, to which the great bhandhär a belongs, is very tough, and requires frequent admonitions from the Rawal, but, I believe, finally we shall see everything (1874:90).
Until Alsdorf's visit in 1951, no other modem scholar had visited the Jaisalmer collection, though Shridhar R. Bhandarkar tried to gain access in 1905, while searching for manuscripts for the Government. Alsdorf arrived on invitation by Muni Punyavijaya (1896-1971), who at the time worked in Jaisalmer on his catalogue of the Jaisalmer collection, and later wrote:
He who stepped down the steep staircase into the two narrow subterranean chambers lacking any openings for light and airthe rear one only accessible through a loop-hole barely meterhigh -- he understands without further ceremony how easy it was to thoroughly dupe Bühler... until now every attempt of cataloguing could only lead to partial successes (Alsdorf 162).