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SINGHI JAIN SERIES
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MANDIR, Ahmedabad, and even before that period, I had begun collecting materials of historical and philological importance, and of folk-lore etc., which had been lying hidden in the great Jaina Bhandars of Patan, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Cambay, etc. I induced my noble friend Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi, also to start a Series which would publish works dealing with the vast materials in my possession, and also with other allied important Jaina texts and studies prepared on the most modern scientific methods. Hence the inauguration of the present Singhi Jaina Series.
At an early age Babu Bahadur Singhji joined the family business by pushing ahead with his father's enterprises, and succeeded in making the firm the foremost in the mining industry of Bengal and Central India. Besides he also acquired vast zamindaries and had interests in many industrial and banking concerns. This early preoccupation with business affairs prevented his having a college education. But Singhji was studious and introspective by nature. He devoted all his spare time to study and cultural development. He acquired an excellent command over several languages. Art and literature were the subjects of his choice. He was very fond of collecting rare and invaluable specimens of ancient sculpture, paintings, coins, copperplates and inscriptions. His manuscript-collection contained a large number of rare works of historical and cultural importance, among which mention must be made of a unique manuscript of the Koran which was handed down from Baber to Aurangzeb and bears the autographs of all of them. His numismatic collection, especially of Kushan and Gupta coins, is considered the third best in the world. He also had a good and large collection of works of art and historical importance. Singhiji was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (London), a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, the Indian Research Institute and a FounderMember of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. He was also the President of the Jaina Swetambara Conference held in Bombay in 1926. Though he had made no special study of law he was well up in legal matters. On one occasion in the Calcutta High Court when he found that even his distinguished lawyers were not properly representing his case he himself pleaded out the case successfully, much to the surprise of the opposite party who was a manager of a big European firm.
Though a highly religious and leading figure in the Jain Community he had an outlook which was far from sectarian. More than three-fourths of the six lakhs and over of his donations were for non-Jain causes. More often than not he preferred to give his assistance anonymously and he did not keep a list of his donations even when they were made in his name.
To the Hindu Academy, Daulatpur, Rs. 15,000/-. to the Taraqi-Urdu Bangala 5000/-. to the Hindi Sahitya Parishad 12,500/to the Vishuddhanand Sarasvati Marwari Hospital 10,000/to several maternity homes 2,500/to the Benares Hindu University 2,500/to the Jianganj High School 5,000/to the Jiaganj London Mission Hospital 6,000/to the Jain Temples at Calcutta and Murshidabad 11,000/-. to the Jaina Dharma Pracharaka Sabha, Manbhum 5,000/-.
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to the Jain Bhavan, Calcutta, 15.00012, Manbhum 5,000/
to the Jain Pustak Prachar Mandal, Agra, 7,500/to the Agra Jain Temple 3,500/-. to the Ambala Jain High School, 2,100/-. for the Prākrit Kośa 2,500/-. to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan 10,000/
At the Singhi Park Mela held in December, 1941, at his Ballyganj residence in which Viscount Wavell, then Commander-in-Chief and Lord John Herbert, Governor
a
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