Jain Spirit 2001 12 No 09

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 57

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images and Jain texts. Furthermore, the colophons on some manuscripts indicate that commissioning the copying of a manuscript generated merit. This could be dedicated to a living or deceased ancestor., It is therefore not surprising to find that medieval Jain kings and merchants were famous for the libraries that they established. The twelfth-century emperor, Kumarapala is said to have established twenty-one libraries in Patan, which was his capital, and arranged for the copying of seven sets of the Shvetambara Agamas along with Hemachandra's Sanskrit and Prakrit grammar.
Many Jain pilgrimage shrines have secret cellars where - in times of political instability - images, ornaments, manuscripts and other valuables could be stored for safekeeping. These rooms were attached to Jain monasteries (upasray) or temples, occasionally to ordinary houses. Individual manuscripts might contain a single text in just a few pages, a single text of many pages, or as many as several dozen texts, which might or might not be closely related in terms of content. Most extant
संसारमा वारसी लामि mafogancazion अंतिरखार सम्ममा इडिया समा गया तशात सगाडा था। व समुद्यान्ना॥ जिएसासपुन्नपराए) गल सरिनम गायली काडसास गाएबे से डा।
included valuable Brahmanical and Buddhist texts that would otherwise have been lost to posterity. Most of what we know about western Indian painting for example comes from the study of the many illustrated manuscripts in the bhandars. In addition, over the centuries the bhandars have become the repositories of other works of art. such as illustrated scrolls, paintings on cloth, painted or embroidered book covers, painted wooden manuscript boxes, devotional images in stone, metal, crystal and other sculptures.
Jains insist that a book, any book, should be treated with respect. Once a year, therefore, on the fifth day after the New Year, known as "Knowledge Fifth" (Jnan Pancami), Jains go to the library and bhandars to worship both the knowledge contained in the manuscripts and the physical manuscripts themselves. Both modern printed books and older hand-written manuscripts are arranged in tiers on tables. Laity stand before the books with hands
a
हिंराया।।
स
सगराझी तालका लता मालया
Knowledge Restored
A page from Kalpasutra manuscript, circa 1400
0000000 mana
हिराय मद का। सगला जा माए [सावांस।।। लाखापर कालेवारण राया नामांवि
A
manuscripts are on paper, with older ones being on palm-leaf joined in a gesture of veneration and sing vernacular hymns and an occasional one on cloth. to knowledge. Offerings of the sacred sandalwood powder known as vaskep (as well as money) are placed onto metal trays on the tables, and then, in an act sure to run shivers up the spine of any library archivist, the powder is sprinkled over the books and manuscripts themselves. This illustrates how knowledge was always respected and treasured by Jains.
Donald Johnson has succinctly described the process by which the Jain manuscript collections came to the attention of Western scholars. The subsequent investigation of these collections has resulted in the publication of many hundreds of critical and semi-critical editions of texts, both by limited circulation of Jain-funded text series and more visible series such as the Bombay Sanskrit and Prakrit Series, the Gaekwad's Oriental Series and the L. D. Series. The texts have significantly augmented our understanding of the social, royal, intellectual and artistic history of western India. Since the Jains have been quite catholic in their attitudes towards the collection and retention of texts, the bhandar collections have also
John E. Cort is a Professor of Asian Religions at Dennyson University, Ohio. He is a prolific author and eloquent speaker on Jainism. The above article is extracted from the Journal of the American Oriental Society (1995) issue 115.1 pages 77 to 87 and is reprinted with permission.
December 2001 February 2002 Jain Spirit
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