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The Jaina Antiquary
(Vol. XVII years old stone image of 'Sri Bahubali Swami' but he was much grieved, at the same time, to see that there was none to look after or appreciate these things which were on the verge of ruin by the ravages of time. He then and there took a vow of leading a 'Brahmachari' life till he collected all the available literature of Jainism and made provision for their safe upkeep. Accordingly where ever he went, he spurred people to open libraries to collect and preserve these things. In many places he himself laid the foundation stone of such libraries.
Thus making an extensive tour of the Bombay Presidency, Sravanbelgola, Mysore, Bengalore, Mangalore and other places, his party reached Mudbidri. Here he met with a number of archaeological finds and Jain images of exquisite beauty made of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other valuable stones. But to his utter surprise and pain he found the people indifferent to their enviable surroundings and possessions due to the their ignorance. So he called a meeting of the Jain community there and through lectures and persuasions brought home to them the need of religious and educational institutions. The response was prompt and sufficient money was collected to start the institution at once. Now with the same zeal and fervour he proceeded to Belgaun and several other places exhorting people to follow the same line of action as suggested by him in Mudbidri and the response was equally good every where. Now returning from his South India pilgrimage and being in po 34e9sion of several resuscitated ancient Jain Literatures, he felt the necessity of establishing a centre at his own headquarters at Arrah where he could preserve those valuable materials and make them available to research scholars.
With this end in view he established "The Central Jain Oriental Library which is now housed in a beautiful up-to-date building, built at the cost of several thousands of rupees. The library has now become a growing institution having thousands of high class books on different topics concerning all the religions and almost all the schools of philosophy of the world, four thousand and five hundred manuscripts on 'Bhojaptra' a good many collection of rare coins, stamps and antique sacred paintings. Under the auspices of this library is also published 'The Jain Sidhanta Bhasker' a high class
