Muni Jambuvijayji Homage and reminiscences

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 3

248 अनुसन्धान 50 (2) (Poland) by Piotr Balcerowicz, where a message in beautiful Sanskrit written by Muni Jambuvijayaji was read to the participants. An auspicious beginning, indeed. Muni Jambuvijayaji's action went much beyond his own publications. A highly respected figure of the Jain community, he also considered his duty to improve the state of Jain libraries, and to guarantee the preservation and accessibility of the manuscripts. Such is the message he also conveyed in the Foreword he wrote to our Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts of the British Library (2006), underlining the importance of preserving and cataloguing the heritage of Jain manuscripts in India as well. Indeed, his name will remain for ever attached to the Jaisalmer and the Patan bhandars. Not only did he produce with his team a new catalogue of the Jaisalmer libraries. Open to the useful innovations of modern technology, he undertook the digitization of manuscripts in these two illustrious places. As reported by Royce Wiles, an Australian scholar who was present during a few months of 1998 when the project to replicate the Jain manuscripts in Jaisalmer was undertaken, "Muni Jambuvijaya on more than one occasion laid emphasis on the need to use the very best technical methods now available to pass on to future generations the spiritual/cultural heritage contained in these MSS. No expense was spared in setting up the equipment of the project and the technical facilities procured were in my opinion world-class" (Bulletin d'Etudes Indiennes, Paris, 16, 1998, p. 163). From what I know, the work in Patan has just been completed in spring 2009. Such achievements will remain for ever. We only hope that, inspired by Muni Jambuvijayaji's example, other people will continue to work in the same direction. Muni Jambuvijayaji was truly the embodiment of perfection in knowledge and in character. One cannot but admire his simplicity, earnestness, commitment and energy both mental and physical, until the last instant of his life in this world. C/O Sorbonne-Nouvelle University Paris, France.