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AN EPITOME OF JAINISM. Malayagiri was also a well-known author. Devendra Suri, Shanti Suri, and Dharma Sågar also composed many important works. Among the later authors Acharjya Hemchandra is well-known in the literary circle and he contributed greatly towards the preservation of the history of our sect. His dictionary and other works besides the life of King Kumarpala, a prince of Guzrat, and his chief disciple, have made him immortal and proclaim the wealth and richness of Jain literature.
The Jains have got a rich store of old and valuable Palm-leaf manuscripts still preserved with care in various Bhandars in the West and South. The reader will find specimens of an illustrated palm-leaf manuscript written in the 12th century A. D. and preserved in the Patan Bhandar. The Jain library in Jesalmir is far famed as containing a large number of ancient manuscripts both on palm and paper leaves. The various Jain libraries of Patan, Ahmedabad, Cambay, Bhavnagar and Bikanir are also well-known. These are consequences of a customery practice with the Jains which find
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