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SEMINAR ON ARDHAMĀGADHI JAINA ĀGAMA LITERATURE
Kanjibhai Patel By way of the celebration of the birth-centenary of Āgama Prabhakara Muni Shri Punyavijayaji, the L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad organized, in collaboration with the Gujarat Sanskrit Sahitya Academy, Gandhinagar, a national level seminar on the Ardhamagadhi Jaina Agama Literature, for three days, from 16th to 18th February, 1997, on the premises of the L. D. Institute at Ahmedabad. Muni Shri Punyavijayaji has highly obliged the academicians and scholars of India and abroad, by critically editing and publishing many rare Sanskrit and Prakrit works and thus brought out the merits of the Indian ethos. He undertook to set right the contents of the ancient Jaina Jñānabhandaras, which were not being run in a methodical manner. He took utmost pains to reorganize these collection of books, classified them, catalogued them, and where necessary made arrangements for their long term preservation and prevented the eventual loss in future due to white ants and the like. He presented his rare collections of both the hand-written ancient and medieval manuscripts and printed books to the L. D. Institute Library, after getting the L. D. Institute of Indology established in 1956, and made the library available to the scholars interested in research in Jaina language, literature and philosophy. Although as a Muni he was devoted to the scriptural lore of Jainism, he was an institution by himself. This, being the centenary year of his birth, the Institute organized this Seminar
commemorate his academic achievements and pay homage to his excellent scholarship. About forty-five scholars from Madras, Shravana Belgola, Mumbai, Patna, Varanasi, Delhi, Udepur, Ladnu, as also from Dwarka, Rajkot, Bhavanagar, Veravala, Vadodara, Patan, besides many local ones from Ahmedabad, participated in this seminar. The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. H. M. Joshi, the Vice-Chancellor of the Saurashtra University, Rajkot, at 9. 30 a. m. on the 16th February, 1998. On that occasion, Sheth Shri Shrenikbhai, the Secretary of the Managing Trust of the L. D. Institute welcomed the scholars who had come from various parts of our vast country, and expressed his pleasure for the organization of this Seminar as a means to express the sense of respect and appreciation of his literary and scholarly activities on the occasion of his birth-centenary. Dr. Jitendra Shah, the then Hon. Director of the L. D. Institute, presented an account of the academic and extra-curricular activities of the institute. Prof. Ujamshi Kapadia, the Co
