________________
[VII
Ministry of the Bombay Presidency), my esteemed friend and the originator and the founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. In that letter he had mentioned that Sheth Sri Mungalal Goenka had placed a liberal sum of two lacs of rupees at his disposal for the establishment of a good academic institution for Indological studies and he had asked me to come down to Bombay to discuss and prepare a scheme for that. Accordingly, I came here and saw Munshiji. Knowing that he had a fervent desire of founding at Bombay an institution of the type of the Puratattva Mandir, I was extremely delighted and I showed my eagerness to offer for that such services as might be possible for me. We, then, began to draft out a scheme and after some deliberations and exchange of ideas the outline of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan was settled. Accordingly, on the auspicious full-moon day of the Karttik of 1995 (V. S.) the opening ceremony of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan took place amidst the clappings and rejoicings of a magnificent party which was arranged at the residence of Munshiji. The Bhavan has completed. five years of its career on the last Karttiki full-moon day. The brilliant achievement and the wide publicity which the Bhavan has been able to secure in this short period of five years, bear eloquent testimony to the inexhaustible fund of energy and unsurpassed skill of Munshiji. As I am inseparably linked up with it from the very conception, I also feel the same amount of joy and interest at the Bhavaa's progress as Sri Munshiji, its Founder-President and therefore I have been always offering my humble services in its various undertakings and activities.
On the other hand, the Singhi Jain Series is the principal ai of my remaining life and the results of my thinking, meditation, researches and writings have all been devoted to the development of the Series. As life passes on, the time of activity is also naturally shortened and therefore it is quite appropriate, now, for me to chalk out lines of its future programme and
permanence.
As Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi, the noble founder and the sole patron of the Series, has placed the whole responsibility of the Series on me from its inception, he has also the right to expect that more and more works may more speedily and splendidly be published. I have neither seen nor come across any other gentleman who can match with him as regards generosity and unbounded zeal for the revival of ancient literature. On the works of the Series he has spent through me more than 50,000 rupees till now. But he has not even once asked me, during this long period of a dozen years, as to how and for what works the amount was spent. Whenever the account was submitted to him, he did not ask for even the least informatiou and sanctioned it casting merely a formal glance on the account sheets. But he discussed very minutely the details regarding things such as the paper, types, printing, binding, get-up, etc. as well as internal subjects like Preface. and others, and occasionally gives very useful suggetrions thereon with deep
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
