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૧૮૦ હસ્તપ્રતવિદ્યા અને આગમ સાહિત્ય: સંશોધન અને સંપાદન establishments under the leadership of the Bhattārakas who encouraged the laity to enrich the temples with donations of icons for worship and manuscripts for spiritual enlightenment. It is at this point of time that the tradition of sástra-dán gained momentum and it was regarded as an act of religious merit to gain wisdom. The idea of the reverence for learning acted as a main inspiration in creation of śāstrabhandaras equipped with illustrated and unillustrated manuscripts. Both, the monks and the shravakas contributed to this activity equally. Right from the times of Acharya Bhaduabahu to Ca. 16th century, Acharya Kundakunda, Umaswati, Siddhasena, Devanandi, Devardhagani, Akalanka, Haribhadra Suri, Jinasena, Gunabhadra and Hemachandra, etc. not only filled the śästra-bhandaras with their own works but preached the importance of writing down the manuscripts to the masses. It is mentioned in the Upadesátarangini that Kumarapala* (A.D. 1143-1174) of Gujarat established twenty-one sastra-bhandaras and presented each one with a copy of Kalpasutra written in gold letters. As , a result of this, large number of manuscripts of religious text were prepared and presented to temple libraries all over in Western India, including Delwada, Agatpur, Jaisalmer, Cambay, Broach, Sirohi, Rajnagar, Patan, etc.
The growth of Jain Mss. in Western India on plamleaf and their painted book-covers is simultaneous to that of the Buddhist Mss. in Eastern India. The script used in Western India is an early form of Nagri with
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