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Muni Jipavijayaji
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plenty of material bearing on problems of research which he had the good and great opportunity to collect and having fully exploited the situation for giving a scientific form and colour for which German scholarship is noted to his knowledge and experience about research, when he came back to India, he heard the irresistible clarion call of Gandhiji to participate in his march to Dāņņi. He then at once decided to join it and also went to jail. After this he went to Shanti Niketan on Tagore's invitation which he was very much pleased to accept. Here Muniji was asked by Tagore to lay the foundation of the Institute of Oriental Studies as a part of Shanti Niketan which was named as Jain Jnanapith. He also availed himself here of enriching his knowledge and experience by constant contact with such giants in research as Vidhushekhar Bhattāchārya and Kshitimohan Sen. Just at this time K. M. Munshiji was thinking to found an institution for Post-graduate research and studies in Bombay on an all-India basis. Munshiji found in Muniji the only appropriate person for implementing his gigantic scheme. Moreover, they had been earlier known to each other. So Munshiji immediately sent an invitation full of love and regard to Muniji wbo soon rushed to Bombay and laid the foundation of the present Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1938 in an atmosphere of very high hopes which, we are in a position to say, have been fully fulfilled. Remaining throughout his stay here as its Hon. Director and the Head of the Department of Jain Studies, Muniji carried out in full swing the work of publishing as editor very bulky and important volumes relating mainly to Jainology under the auspices of unique Singhi Jain Series which forms an integral part of the Bhavan so far as its publishing activities are concerned. Muniji left nothing undone to be of use and assistance to Munshiji in building up and consolidating the reputation of the Bhavan, Muniji had always cherished a desire to do something of everlasting value in his native place. The urge was becoming keener day by day and as he was never in the habit of sticking to one place for ever, he went to Jaipur from here at the request of the then Chief Minister, Shri Hirālalji Shastri, to found yet another Institute of Research there. He planned and put it on a sound basis and remained till his end its virtual head. He, thereafter, went to Chanderia in Chittor and founded Sarvodaya Sadhana Ashram. At Chittor he laid the foundation of Bhāmasha Bhārati Bhavan and the Kirtimandir of Haribhadra Suri, thereby discharging his debt to Haribhadra Suri who was a symbol of love and regard to him throughout his life. With the Sarvodaya Sadhana Ashram he was so much identified that while dying at Ahmedabad he had expressed his desire that his funeral rites should be performed and he should be laid to rest at Chanderia. Muniji was instrumental in establishing for the preservation, progress and propagation of Oriental learning and literature, four centres at Ahmedabad, Shanti Niketan, Bombay and Jodhpur in the manner of Adi Shankaracharya who did so fort he preservation of Hinduism in East, West, South and North. He brought thousands of books, valuable and rare, in donations for the Oriental Institute at Poona and Bhāratiya Vidya Bhavan at Bombay. To the scholars of future generations, he provided ample material
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