Development And Impact Of Jainism In India And Abroad

Author(s): Gunvant Barvalia
Publisher: Arham Spiritual Center

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JAIN MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES
the German scholar Hermann Jacobi.
Known collections of Indian manuscripts exist at The British Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Wellcome Trust, Libraries of the Oxford University and Cambridge University, Royal Asiatic Society, Florence University in Italy, Strasbourg University, Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, Vienna University, Berlin, Russia, United States of America etc. and the quality of Jain manuscripts in these collections is noteworthy.
On the term 'Jain manuscript'
The concept of a 'Jain manuscript' for cataloguing purpose is open to several differing interpretations. Four alternative definitions of the term were proposed by H.R.Kapadia, whose name is familiar to anyone interested in codicology, especially with Jaina manuscripts. For he is among the main ones to have paved the way by his outstanding articles and by his catalogues of the manuscript collections deposited at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Pune). His definitions, which were cited by C.B.Tripathi in the Catalogue of the Jaina Manuscripts at Starsbourg (1975. P. 17) are repeated here:
(1) Whatever is written in the form of a Manuscript by a Jaina is a Jaina Ms. (2) Whatever Manuscript is written in Jaina Nagar? character is a Jaina Ms.
(3) Any Jaina work sacred or even secular written in the form of a Manuscript by a Jaina or non-Jaina is styled a Jaina Ms.
(4) Any Manuscript that is in possession of a Jaina individual or body is a Jaina Ms.Jain manuscript has wide ranges of subjects. Jaina monks have dealt with mostly all the subjects like religious and dogmatic works, narrative works, hymns, ritualistic works, genealogies, astrology, astronomy, cosmology, philosophy, nyaya, yoga, grammar, lexicons, treatises of metrics, poetics, mathematics, medicines, Ayurvedic, commentaries on non-Jaina works written by a Jain authors, animal disease - its causes and prevention, metallurgy, test of diamond, and many more.
Travel path of Jain Manuscripts towards Foreign countries:
Our general assumption about Jain Manuscripts in foreign countries is that they might have been stolen from our countries, but it is not the case. There are few legal ways by which Jaina manuscripts have travelled from India to foreign countries. These can be indicated as below.
(a) Foreign scholars, mainly British scholars have introduced the research and editing system in India. They themselves did many research in India and in their home countries, so the manuscripts which they have used for their research work were collected in foreign collections. They were then gifted to particular Institutes or Libraries. Ex. Dr. Herman Jacobi has gifted his collection which is now the wealth of British Library - London.
(b) They have bought many manuscripts from manuscript agents in India. Those records are available from their record books with dates and other data. One major sales agent 'Bhagwandas Kevaldas' from Surat has sold many Jaina manuscripts to many scholars in various countries. From few records and surveys it is found that series of complete manuscripts of the Jain canon have been scattered in various countries. As an example it is found that a Jain lay person named 'Jayakara?a' has got written a series of the 45 Agams in the year V.S. 1694, out of
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