Jain Journal 1971 10

SR No.: 520024
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 45
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 10

JAIN JOURNAL
Muniji's contribution to research and learning in the field of Indology was supreme. He made concerted efforts to bring out the old manuscripts in Prakrit, Sanskrit and Apabhramsa from the traditionally closed bhandāras through the influence, ingenuity and industry of his Guru Caturvijayji and his own. He took long and arduous journeys in places far off to discover and recover the manuscripts which were treasure-houses of knowledge and learning. He knew no obstacles in his pathway towards the goal he had set out for himself. He did all this single-handed and undeterred by opposition and difficulties which came in his way. He had great conviction of the importance of the scholastic work he had undertaken and a great confidence in his ability to pursue the path he had chosen. It was his great ‘vrata' to make the hithertohidden sources of knowledge open and available to scholars and research-workers of the world. It is indeed true that but for him, Jainology would have remained deprived of many important and valuable springs of knowledge in its área. Muniji was an individual but his work proved that he was an institution and what he achieved through his incessant endeavours would have been considered absolutely miraculous even for an institution. Pandit Sukhlalji had once remarked, "What several sādhus of either Sthanakvasi, Murtipujak or other sects combined could not do and achieve, was achieved by Muni Punyavijayji.” Not only in quantum his work was great but also in quality and standard of perfection it was great. He was a perfectionist and would never leave his i's undotted and t's uncut. He had no parallel in this respect. He could do this because he had a real mastery over all the three languages of the oriental vidyā, viz., Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa.
What was really astonishing was that his passion, pursuit and perseverence did not make him flinch in anyway from the disciplined life enjoined upon him by the rules and practices of monkhood. He was a saint first and a saint last. His erudition of knowledge was only an additional embellishment to his sainthood. All through his life, he followed meticulously all yratas of a Jaina monk which he was required to observe. Truly, he had right perception, right knowledge and right conduct. He was great in scholarship, he was grearer still in his character based on religious piety and non-attachment to worldly possessions of any kind. Whatever came to him as a token of respect and appreciation for him and his work from his śrāvakas was ploughed back in his farm of knowledge to plant more and reap more.
By birth and by initiation he belonged to the Svetambara Murtipujak sect of the Jainas, but he was no where secterian in his approach and views. He was a scholar with open mind in every respect, and