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JAIN MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES
research for long years and those manuscripts have been used for their research project which are rare, important and noteworthy which enrich the collection. These manuscripts are well preserved with modern technical system.
There exists few important cosmological diagrams, illustrated manuscripts, yantras on metal like copper, cloth etc.. important maps, few rare and unique palm leaf manuscripts which enrich the collections. More and more digitization of precious manuscripts is being done in libraries outside India: some of the British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Bodleian Library, Wellcome Trust and Royal Asiatic Society are accessible on the Jainpedia website (www.jainpedia.org). The Cambridge University Library is digitizing several Indian manuscripts on its website as well.
From the catalogues one can have an idea of hidden treasure there in foreign countries.
Institute of Jainology - UK & Ahmedabad is dedicated to the noble cause of raising awareness of Jainism worldwide through the channel of art, culture and education. Among those one dream is to complete a survey of all Jain manuscripts in Europe, named "Towards an inventory of Jain manuscripts in Europe ( IJME)". Under this project the "Descriptive catalogue of Jain manuscripts in British library " was published in 2006 and launched by Hon. Indian prime minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh at Vigyanbhavan, New Delhi. Other institutions' catalogues - The Wellcome Trust, Oxford University - Bodelian Library catalogues have been prepared and will be published soon.
Along with this we have surveyed Europe and other countries where Jain manuscripts are found. Here we try some approximate statistical figures regarding the number of Jain manuscripts in the Western world outside Europe in the narrow sense of the word:
United states of America
Total number of Jaina manuscripts c.415. (based on a rough survey of the various sections of A Census of Indic Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, compiled by H.I.Poleman, New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1938)
The total number of Indian manuscripts listed in this compilation reaches between 7500 to 8000.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts, about 19 manuscripts. List supplied by Vishalha Desai, Assistant Curator, July 1989
Washington. D. C. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution: about 4 Manuscripts
Washington. D.C.U.S. Library of Congress: about 35 Manuscripts. List is comp. by Horace 1. Poleman. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1939
Russia: St.Petersburg, Asiatic Museum & Russian National Library
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