Jaina Granth Bhandars in Rajasthan

Author(s): Kasturchand Kasliwal
Publisher: Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra Mandir

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Jaina Grantha Bhandars in Rajasthan.
The Granth Bhanḍārs are of various sizes. In Big Sastra Bhandārs not only old manuscripts of religious texts are in the collection but manuscripts on secular subjects like literature, kavya, Purāṇa, astronomy, mathematics and medicine are also there in these Bhandars. Books on the subjects like stories or Kathas and dramas are in abundance. Works on social, political and economical life of the times are also available in them. In some of the Bhandars there are rare manuscripts though written by non-Jaina authors and not available in non-Jain collections Vachavata Vanśavali by Cărana, Vaital Paccisi by Hālu, Vilhana Carita Caupai by Dulha are some of them, All the manuscript copies of Visal Deva Rāso have been found in the Jaina Sastra Bhanḍārs. Most of the Bhandars which possess more than 500 manuscripts are the research Institutes for the students who are desirous of making research in various branches of learning such as Kavya, Alankara, Chanda, Jyotisa, Ayurveda, Mathematics and Politics Economics, Music Singing and Dancing etc There is a great wealth preserved in these institutions which were not easily accesseable to the scholars previously, but now these Bhandārs can be seen easily and research material may be collected It is a matter of great regiet that neither the Jainas nor the non-Jain scholars have tried to examine the literature collected in them and in the absence of research, several important works have not yet come to light
These Grantha Bhandars are manuscripts libraries where bonafide student can get books for study. In the past also they were more or less like modern libraries and reading rooms, The manuscripts placed in some of these Bhandārs were fully catalogued alphabetically and also subjectwise The manuscripts were placed between wooden boards and held together by means of strings of cotton or silk. The manuscupts are then wrapped in pieces of cloth or silk and they are arranged in serial number. Thus they are arranged in a very scientific manner and due to adoption of scientific way of their preservation, manuscripts written as early as the 11th century are still preserved in these Grantha Bhandars
As already stated above these Grantha Bhandars are situated in various cities, towns and villages. So it it is very difficult to state their definite number. Upto this time no sincere 'attempts were made to search out all these Bhandars of Rajasthan Except the Jaisalmer Bhandars, no other Bhanḍārs were examined either by the foreigners or the by Indian Scholars Among the foreigners, Bhuler and Peterson and among the Indians. Sridhar Bhandarkar. Hīrā Lāl, Hans Raj Hansvijay and C. D. Dalal were the main scholars who did this work, but all these scholars worked only in the Grantha Bhandars of Jaisalmer. Ail the other Grantha Bhandars of Rajasthan remained untouched and unseen by the scholars and the result of not visiting the Bhandars was that a complete History of Indian literature such as of Samskrit. Prakrit, Apabhramsa, Hindi and Rajasthan could not be placed