________________
ilov)
જૈન ગ્રંથાવળી ઉપર છે. ભડકંકરને અભિપ્રાય
(276
જૈન ગ્રંથાવલી ઉપર પ્રે, ભડકમકરને અભિપ્રાય.
12, Sadashiv Street, Girgaon, Bombay.
4th July 1909. To, The Secretary, Shri Jain (Swetamber) Conference,
BOMBA Dear Sir,
Your letter and the catalogue of Jain Mss prepared by your office both duly_to hand. The book clearly bears signs: of love and labour, and I believe the Conference has done signal service to their own religion as well as to literature in general in offering the information of all these records in so detailed a form. The footnotes are interesting and the in dexes greatly facilitate reference.
I hardly deserve being called a devout student of Jainism though I have surely begun to see the excellence and usefulness of this literature in various ways. Rather than being essentially antagonistic I feel it is supplementary to Brahmanical literature and I believe, it is impossible to gain a full and an accurate view of the development of the present com posite Hinduism unless our scholars devoutly give themselves up to a study as far as possible of the Jain, the Brahmanic and the Buddhistic pali literature. The latter two are made so far accessible by the labours of the European, and the Hindu Scholars, and the work of the Pali text society. But the Jain literature, though playing an important part in the medieval history of India has not yet been accessible on a large scale. The efforts of your Conference and the munificent support of your own people is however expected to make up for the want.
I should suggest that you will now get up a comthittee of interested literary men like Prof. K. B. Pathak and other