Jain Journal 1972 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 18

Vijnaptipatra of Udaipur
B. L. NAHATA
A very important contribution of the Svetambara Jainas are the very long and illustrative scrolls of invitation, called Vijñaptipatras which have not yet attracted much attention of the Indologists and social historians in this country. Years back, the first issue of the Gaekwad of Baroda's Coronation Commemoration series contained an account of these which was entitled 'Ancient Vijñaptipatras'. Since then, other Vijñaptipatras have been detected in various Jaina collections at different places, but not much use of these has been made to this day, so that they lie where, and as, they were. And yet as fine pieces of art and materials for the writing of social history, these are second to none.
It is well-known that in the fourfold order of the Jainas consisting of monks and nuns and lay-followers, both male and female the topmost position is held by the Acarya. It is customery, therefore, for the monks and nuns under him to send to him a detailed report about the discourses given, the penances undergone, gifts distributed during the great festival of Paryusana. Besides, these served as letters of invitation to the Acarya to spend some time in that particular place. These scrolls sent by the monks were scribed in scholarly Sanskrit or Prakrit and were often a mixture of prose and verse. Invitations sent by the lay-followers were highly illustrated and were written either in an admixture of Sanskrit and local language or in local language only.
seems
The tradition of sending such accounts-cum-invitations to be very old and it is so to say an exclusve tradition in the Jaina cultural heritage. The earliest of these so far known is the one sent by Jinodaya Suri from Patan in V.S. 1431 (1375 A.D.) to Lokahitacarya at Ayodhya. Next in the series should be an invitation sent in V.S. 1466 (1410 A.D.) to Devasundara Suri, of which only a portion is extant. The third one in the series is a very significant invitation sent in V.S. 1484 (1428 A.D.) by Upadhyaya Jayasagar Gani of the Kharataragaccha to Jinabhadra Suri. It contains a vivid and scholarly account of a pilgrimage