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110:
Śramaņa, Vol 56, No. 1-6/January-June 2005
Jaina libraries (bharļāras)
The establishment of Jaina manuscript libraries (śāstra bhandāras) and the religious merit which was gained by gifts of manuscripts (śāstradāna) were the two major factors in the development of both Digambara and Śvetāmbara manuscript production in Western India. These libraries have not only helped in preserving Jaina literature but Indian literature as a whole. A vast body of ancient Indian Sanskrit literature has been preserved in the Jaina bhandāras. Thanks to the diverse interests of the Jaina monks and their tremendous quest for knowledge.
This work started sometime in the eighth century when, due to generous patronage and endowments the originally itinerant Jaina monks found themselves the owners of properties and temples. The management of these religious establishments was entrusted to a senior monk, who came to be called the bhattāraka, "one of whose main responsibilities was the establishing of temple libraries. First the Digambaras then, in the late eighth century, the Svetāmbaras established libraries. Tradition has it that Kumārapāla (1143-1172), the Cālukya ruler of Gujarat, was responsible for the establishment of no less than twenty-one libraries in his capital. Annhilapataka (modern Patan). Vastupāla, the Prime Minister and co-builder of the Dilvara Jạina temples at Mount Abu in Rajasthan, is said to have established libraries at Patan, Khambhat (Cambay) and Broach. A rare palm-leaf manuscript of the Dharmābhyudaya, also known as Sarighapaticaritra or Sanghādipaticaritra, copied by Vastupāla himself in 1233, has survived in the Sāntinātha Bhandāra, Khambhat. It shows the minister's love not only for writing but also for the śāstradāna. The bhandāras in the desert town of Jaisalmer are the most celebrated, for many precious manuscripts from Gujarat were taken there to save them from the Muslim onslaught. A majority of the palm-leaf manuscripts in the Jaisalmer bhandāras once belonged to the Patan libraries.
Interestingly, the Jaina libraries have also maintained a sort of catalogue (called tipas) of their holdings, mostly prepared by the
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