Jinamanjari 1998 09 No 18

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 45

gave answers to my many questions, supported me with good advice in my negotiations with the Osval library committee and took a lively interest in the discoveries which I soon began to make.
Once, when he preached to the congregation, he made a special invitation for us to listen, and allowed us to witness how the community richly presented him with gifts after the sermon. He received some 700 Florins in cash, four small golden and four large silver waterjugs and 860 pieces of cloth, stitched by pious hands, for wrapping his books. Of the latter he gave me one specimen as a remembrance. Even in later years wandering monks did bring me greetings from him, and once, when I sent him a copy of a book which I found in Jaisalmer and had printed later, I received a friendly letter of acknowledgement in Sanskrit. The beginning of my scientific activities looked promising. Already two days after our arrival on the 18th we were guided to the temple of Parishnath [sic] in the fort, in whose vaults the great library was kept. A number of manuscripts were brought to us, amongst which were many extraordinarily old ones dating from the 12th century of our era. Until the year 1873 one did not at all know that manuscripts existed in India, which went back to the year 1258. But the most important European colleagues, like Müller, Weber and Aufrecht, still doubted the authenticity of the dates. My joy therefore was not small, when I suddenly got to see manuscripts which were even 150 years older, and I was not less pleased, when I found amongst these works, apart from the religious works of the Jainas, important books of the brahmanical literature, and amongst the latter a very old historical work, the life of the famous Chaulukya-prince Vikramaditya V of Kalyana, which was written around 1158 before Christ by his court-poet, the Kashmiri Bilhana.
There was no question of its being a fake and I felt that I had found something which made my journey a successful one. Unfortunately my joy was soon tainted. Already after three days, during which we saw, catalogued, and checked about 50 books, it was suddenly said, that his was to be all for now. Instead of books only some heaps of loose leaves were brought to us, the inspection of which was very toilsome. Then the librarian led one of the people of the Maharawal once more down into the vault and convinced him that nothing else was left in the opened room. I was very angry about this report, which did not convince me, and mocked the committee that the world-famous library of Jaisalmer should only contain 50 manuscripts. This was to stir their ambitions to show us more, but the answer remained: "We have nothing else."
For Private39ersonal Use Only