________________
(
vii
the MSS which is included in their religious practice A Jaina Shrine, particularly the temple was essentially attached with a Sastra-Bhandara, becausc thc Jina. Jinavani and Jinaguru were considered the objccts of worship. Almost all the Jaina temples are invariably accompanied with the Sastra-Bhandaras During the time of some of the Mughal cmpcrors like Mahmud Gaznai ( 1025 A.D) and Aurangzeb ( 1651-1669 A D ) when the temples were destroyed, a new awakening for preservation of the compics and Sastra started and much interior places wirc choosen for the purpose. A new sect of the Bhattarakas and Caityavasis emerged among the Jaina ascetics who undertook with cnthusiasm thc activity of building up thc Sastra Bhandaras As a result, many MSS collcctions came up all over India. The collections of Sravan abclagola, Moodbidri and Humach in Karnataka, Patan in Gujrat, Nagaur, Ajmer, Jaipur in Raj asthan, Kolhapur in Maharastra, Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Delhiare well known. A good number of copies of important MSS were prepared and sent to different Sasira Bhandaras One can imagine how the copies of a works composed in South India could travel to North and West And likewise works composed in North-West reached the Southern coast of India A great number of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhiamsa works were rendered into Kannada, Tamil and Malayalee Scripts and were transcribed on the Palm Leaf It is a historical fact that the religious enthusiasm was so high that Shântammá, a pious Ja ina lady, got prepared one thousand copies of Salipurana and distributed them among religious people. At a time when there were no printing facilities such efforts descrved to be considered of great significance.
The above efforts saved hundreds thousands MSS But along with the development of these new sects these social institutions became almost private properties This resulted into two unwanted developments viZ 1) lack of preservation in many cases and 2) hardship in accessiblity Due to these two reasons the MSS remained locked for a long period for safety, and consequently the valuable treasure remained unknown to scholars. The story of the Sildhanta Sastra Salkhan lägamı is now well known It is only one example
With the new awakening in the middle or last quarter of the Nineteenth Century some enlightened Jaina householders came out
