________________
WENT - ENGLISH PREFACE - 15
Dr. Buhler was under the impression that he had seen all the contents of all the bhandars. As a matter of fact, he inspected only a small portion of one, viz, the Bada (Big) Bhandar, the contents of which he estimates as about 400 or so, whereas even Professor S.R. Bhandarkar knew of 2,200 works in the Big Bhandar. In a letter written in Bikanir to the Berlin Academy, and dated February 14th 1874, only fourteen days after his communication to the Indian Antiquary, Dr. Buhler remarks -
exhaustive, and to mention all the important palm leaf and paper manuscripts in Jesalmere. It is the work of a scholarly young Jain, the late Mr. C.D.Dalal, Sanskrit Librarain, Baroda Central Library. Mr. Dalal was well equipped for his arduous task. He was held in high esteem by the Icared of his community, and had been touring in Western India, doing similar research work in the Jain bhandars of Pattan, Baroda, Camaby, Ahmedabad, Channi and elsewhere. Moreover, for some years he had been engaged in handling, collating and cataloguing the manuscript collection of the Baroda Central Library.
During his visit to Jesalmere in 1916 he carefully examined all the contents of the Big Bhandar and of three other bhandars. Acknowledgement is due to the AgentGeneral for Rajputana, the Residents at Bikanir and Jesalmere, the Jesalmere Darbar and the Panches and Yatis of that city, for assistance given to him during his visit.
"In Jessalmir, which was founded about the middle of the twelfth century...there is a large colony of Jains...A temple was built under the pontificate of Jina Bhadrasuri, to which were gradually added six other temples. Through this temple and the wealth of the Jain community...Jessalmir has obtained a high fame as one of the principal seats of the Jain faith. Especially, however, is the renown of the Bhandar everywhere celebrated, which according to the statements of the Gujaratis, surpasses all similar Bhandars in the world. It was therefore one of the chief objets of my journey to obtain admittance to this Bhandar, and to make its contents accessible to science. After some trouble I succeeded in solving the mystery, and it turns out that the magnitude of the Bhandar has been very much exaggerated, but its contents are nevertheless of great value."
During a brief space of three years this brilliant young scholar found time to edit wholly or in part no less than fourteen works in the Gackwad's Oriental Series, only one half of which, however, had been published at his death. It is feared that his incessant labours seriously weakened his health, never very robust, and indirectly shortened his life.
It is unfortunate that he never found time to prepare the press copy of this Catalogue. At his death in October 1918 only rough and undigested notes were available, a portion being in pencil which had somewhat faded. However, every effort has been made by the compiler to make the List as complete and correct as possible, and he alone is responsible for the Sanskrit Preface, Introduction and Appendices.
About thirty years after Dr. Buhler's visit, he was followed by Professor Shridhar R. Bhandarkar, who has given us the result of his labours in the "Report of a second tour in search of manuscripts in Rajputana and Central India in 1904-5 and 1905-6", published in 1909. Professor Bhandarkar's Report is very interesting and important one. However, it is somewhat unfortunate that he placed so much reliance on a catalogue of Jesalmere manuscripts compiled by one of the Conference pandits, and has thereby occasionally been led into error, for, as the Conference itself confessed in its "Granthavali," the catlogue was a very faulty and imperfect piece of work. In the present Catalogue an attempt has been made to rectify these errors.
The "Descriptive Catalogue" now offered to the public is believed to be pretty
A Descriptive catalogoue of the Jain Bhandars of Patan, together with Mr. Dalal's report on his work in that town, is in hand, and will appear in due course in the Gaekwad's Oriental Series.
N.M.D.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal use only
www.ainelibrary.org
