Jain Legend Vol 1

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

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in Jain history but nobody showed courage to take this difficult task because this work called for undaunted labour and discipline.
Eventually, in 1965, the venerable c rya r Hast malaj M.S. of the famous Ratnavam a rama a tradition took up the extremely difficult task requiring time and labour akin to that of the churning of the ocean. In 1965, i.e., aka Samvata 1922, a History committee was set up at the B lotar rainy season retreat / halt (C turm sa) under the stewardship of
c rya r Hast malaj M.S. and in consultation with Justice r Indranath Modi, esteemed Jain scholarr Dalsukhbhai Malvaniya, Dr. Narendra Bhanavat, etc. Justice r Indranath Modi was elected as chairman, r Sohanlal Kothari as Secretary and r Punamchand Bader as treasurer of the committee by unanimous decision. On several occasions the History Committee sincerely invited many scholarly monks to actively support this difficult task of writing history.
Following the B lotar rainy season retreat c rya r Hast malaj M.S. left for Gujarat with a firm determination to complete this very heavy responsibility. While moving through the desert region and in Gujarat he delved deep into the study of ancient handwritten manuscripts and the Jain corpus and compiled the ancient and historical material available in P a a, Siddhapura, Palanpura, Khed , Khambh a, L mbad , Baroda, Ahmedabad, etc with untiring effort. These materials are preserved today in the Vinaychand J nabhamd ra and Research Institute, Lalbhavan in Jaipur. Writing of history began in 1966, aka 2023 during the Ahmedabad rainy season retreat. But the desired progress could not be made till June 1970. The main reason for this was that the History Committee could not find a scholar well-versed in Sanskrit, Pr k ta, Apabhram a and old Rajasthani (a mixture of Gujarati and Rajasthani languages) who would study the available literature in those languages with dedication and present the essence of it all to him. Meanwhile, he himself was immersed in compiling, sorting, analysis and recasting the material collected so far. During this stay in Gujarat, he sorted out and researched very important chronicles (pa valis) available in different libraries (Bhamd ras) and, on the basis of these, composed a poem containing their essence. The History Committee chose Dr. Narendra Bhanavat to edit nearly half of those chronologies of preceptors ( c ryas) and their history, which was published in 1968 as Pa vali Prabamdha Samgraha.
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