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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXIV, No. 1 July 1999 fascinating story of Bühler's journey from Disa via Sirohi and Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and on to Bikaner in company of the young Hermann Jacobi belongs to the stock of Orientalist legends which are re-told over and over again. But the original report, written ten years after the event and published in German in an Austrian weekly, has almost been forgotten. The following translation of the most significant passages should therefore be of interest. Bühler was the education inspector for a district of northern Gujarat, when he received an order from the Viceroy in 1868 to access and catalogue the indigenous libraries, and to buy manuscripts with the help of a Jain agent as source materials for the compilation of a digest of Hindu Law and for the production of copies for European Universities (Johnson 1992:200). He undertook several journeys through Gujarat in 1868, 1870, 1871 and 1872/3, before he decided to visit the famous Jain libraries in Jaisalmer and Bhatnir, which were first mentioned by James Tod (1830:282), who himself caught a glimpse of the Hemacandra Bhandār at Patan with the help of his Khartar Gacch Jain Guru (Johnson 1992:197ff.). In his report Bühler described the importance and the difficulties of his task as follows: "These libraries are in part extraordinarily extensive and old. They contain many valuable manuscripts and often even works of the brahmanical literature, which are not available elsewhere. But they are under the supervision of a community committee, a so-called Panch, which only in very rare cases is prepared to grant curious Sanskritists access to his treasures. Mostly it requires a hard struggle, out of which the European not always emerges victorious" (Bühler 1883:518). Particularly interesting is his description of two meetings with Jain monks. The first took place in the Parśvanāth temple in Randol, where Bühler copied some ancient copper plates and bought some scriptures for the Government. He writes : "My agent received these from the monk, naturally under the seal of discretion [Bühler does not mention his name). The latter seemed to be very happy with our visit and the business that was done later. In the afternoon he offered us a return visit, which such saints rarely do, and brought along a small disciple, which he educated to be a monk. According to his statement, he bought him during a famine in the year 1869 from his parents. Although the boy was only nine years old, he knew already large parts of the sacred scriptures by heart” (p. 522). The following account of Bühler's subsequent encounter with the Kharatara Gaccha Sripuj Jinmuktisūri in Jaisalmer 15.1.1874 - 4.2.1874 is of great historical significance, because, according to his pupil Winternitz (1898), he owed much of his success in searching Jaina libraries "to his intimate friendship with the Śrīpūj Jinamuktisūri" (p. 344) :
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