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the Prākrut language stood closer to the popular languages of the day than did Sanskrut and a very large number of Prākrut works are composed by Jaina Āchāryas.
Prākrut literature is to be assessed by its value of humanity and its estimation is to be determined by the principles to what extent does it consribute to the progression of mankind and its importance to the society by conveying various aspects of our culture. Of these the Jaina Prākrut Jaina literature is a rich source of certainly highly unique material of a point of cardinal importance. Importance of Jñānabhaņdārs
The Jaina community, so to say, is very rich, wealthy and cohesive. It also believes in giving generous donations for the cause of its religious development and betterment of the community. This was partially due to the emphasis laid on Sāstradāna and the importance of scriptural knowledge for attaining Mokşa. This has inspired this community for preserving and distributing literary works of religious merit and of secular importance. More so, the zeal of performing Shastradāna enkindled their souls to evolve a system of printing & publishing the scattered literature for free distribution. Perhaps this may be the only religious community who has taken a special care of spreading knowledge. This objective has contributed much to the making of the national heritage to some extent. They have preserved with care MSS in Jñānabhaņdāras and these unaccessible Jñānabhaņdāras made available to scholars. They have also painstakingly. published those MSS; and established good libraries wherever possible alongwith the Jñānabhaņdāras, or wherever there is either a big or small Jaina community even without Jñānabhandāras. This means, where there is an Upāsraya, there is generally a library, -- a worth mentioning contribution of Jainas to the cause of learning.
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