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JAINA GAZETTE. [December recipient of Rs. 3,000 only last year. She has now inade a gift of Rs. 25,000 for the spread of female education. She has set an example of economy and convenience of management by abolishing general feasting, a custom which stands as a great barrier to the convening of large assemblies. A new epoch of reform was ushered in these meetings, when it was resolved that inter-marriages among the sub-divisions of the Powar caste should be encouraged. Other social reforins such as the fisation of the minimum marriageable age of boys and girls, the observance of Jain religious rites on occasions of domestic ceremonies, the abolition of prostitute-dances in marriages, etc., were introduced. The arrangements inade under the supervision of Babu Manikchanel, B. A., LL.B., for the convenience of the guests were all that could be desired.
Mr. Danikchand has in l.is address as President of the Reception Committee dealt with almost all the questions of vital interest to the community at the present moment.
The first and foremost of them all is the urgent need of saving the sacred literature of the Jains which is being every moment destroyed by the natural forces of disintegration and is being eaten up by worms avil insects. The learned President rightly deplores the pathy of the Jins, than whom no other community professes to have a higher regard for their sacred books, towards their fast disappearing literature. The Christian and the Dahomedan holds the Bible and Alkoran in very high respect. There are thousands of editions of the Holy Bible, most accurately printed, on superb paper, in ricli binding, of morocco and velvet ; they are kept and used with veneration. The Koran is also like the Bible, printed with a marvellous accuracy. Large rewarıls are offered to persons for a single printing wistake in the Koran, or the Holy Bible. The Vusal. man carries lis Koran high up in a satchel, and would alwily's place it on a high seat wlien reading ic. But neither the Christian nor the Dahomedan literally worships the Sacred Book. To the Jain, his Shastra is an actual object of worship,
like the image in the temple. He prostrates low lcfure bis Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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