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Material for Research
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SCOPE FOR RESEARCH IN THE JAINA GRANTHA BHANDARS:
The Jaina Grantha Bhandårs of Rajasthan are the great store houses of manuscripts written on Palm leaves, paper and clothes. There are more than one lac manuscripts housed in these Bhandars. They deal with a large variety of subjects. There is perhaps no topic on which no literature is found in these Bhandaars. If the Jaina scholars did not write any work on a particular topic they collected works of other scholars for the sake of study. It is a matter of great pleasure that the collection of manuscripts was made only from the point of view of collection of the best and useful material without prejudice to works by non-Jaina authors. Due to their great love for literature, thousands of copies of works written by the leading non-Jaina scholars have found place in these Bhandars.
These Bhandārs have not been thoroughly examined so far. Their catalogues have not been prepared in most cases, and if prepared, they are not on scientific lines, Indian scholars are in dark about the usefulness of most of these Bhandārs. Works on Literature of Samskrit, Prākrit, Apabhrarsa, Hindi and Rajasthani and other allied Indian languages are in such a large number that there is great scope for research on several topics. The contribution of Jaina scholars to the Indian languages has not yet been acknowledged properly. Their contribution to every sphere of knowledge is important. It should not be regarded as merely sectarian and therefore unimportant. There are hundreds of works written in Prakrit language. As a matter of fact the command of Prākrit literature belong mostly to the Jaina scolars. There is a great scope for research on the various works of this language. Moreover most of the works written in this language form a part of the collection of Rajastpan Bhandars and hence they are alone the proper centres for Research. Works on all subjects such a Agama, Kavya, Drama, Katha and some scientific subjects are found in this language. As a matter of fact Prākrit language was the language of the people for more than one thousand years.
To the Sanskrit language the contributions of Jaina scholars is also great On every aspect of Samskrit literature Jainas have written works such as Kavyas, Stories, Puranas, Joytisa, Ayurveda etc. From the 4th Chapter of this book it would be clear that Jaina scholars have contributed greatly to the literary activity of our country. There are also poets like Jainaseana, Gunabhadra, Vardhamana Bhattāraka, Somadeva, Viranandi, Hemcandra, Sakalkirti etc. who contributed hundreds of works to this language. There is no subject on which Jaina Scholars have not written. But if we see history of Samskrit literature we shall find that their works are not sufficiently acknowledged except that a few references are given here and there. Besides original works the Jaina authors have written commentaries on works written by non-Jaida authors. The commentary on Adargha Raghava Natak by Maladhari
