Holy Abu

Author(s): Jayantvijay
Publisher: Yashovijay Jain Granthmala

Page 70

Shanta-murti Muni Shri Jayantavijaya
In Memorium
In December, 1948 the life-term in this incarnation of Shantamurti Muniraja Shri Jayantavijaya ended at Vaļā, Kathiawār. It began in the same place in March, 1884. The span between these dates covered literary activity that is a monumentum aere perennius. Vaļā is a suitable birthplace for a Jain monk and scholar. It is in the ancient Vallabhi, where the council of Devarddhi gani in the fifth (or sixth) century determined the Jain canon..
Muniji was the son Harshachandra, of an Osval merchant, Sheth Bhurābhai and his wife, Jethibai. He was one of four children, two sons and two daughters. The piety of his parents and the atmosphere of the home are witnessed by the fact that one of the daughters also took initiation in later years, while her husband was still living. When Harshachandra was eleven years old, he lost his father and, five years later, his elder brother. So he became the head of his family at the age of sixteen. At this time he had completed his primary education at Vaļā and he began to specialize in Sanskrit and Prakrit literature and the Jain Canonical texts, studying at the sacred city of Pālitānā and Mehsāṇā.
In 1901, he met Acharya Shri Vijaya Dharma Süri at Viramgam, a meeting which was to determine the course of the rest of his life. He spent the caturmasa with him at Mandal, where Vijaya Dharma Süri founded a school, the Yashovijaya Jaina Pathashala. He decided to move the school to Banaras, where it was reopened in 1903. There Harshachandra pursued his studies. A few years later he was appointed Principal of the Pāṭhashālā which prospered