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Panegyric (Prasasti) literature : 45 monks; about their period, work done by their inspiration for social upliftment as well as their literary works etc. In Gujarat and Rajasthan, especially in Jaina tradition, there existed a unique form of colophons of texts or the Panegyric at the end of Jaina works. Sometimes, also at the beginning or in the form of puspikās at the end of some or of all chapters of a work. Dr. Jyoti Prasad Jain observed that pre AD 600 works positively lacked colophons but from then onward Jaina scholars usually composed long colophons at the end of their compositions, supplying detailed account of themselves, their Gurus and their lineage. These colophons contain important genealogical lists of Jaina teachers, references to contemporary rulers, their ministers, generals, important officials, pious men and women. These colophons also contained the account of house-holders, managing the copying of books, purchasing religious books and donating these to deserving monks and nuns for attaining merits at the end of manuscripts. The extensive literary activities during the reigns of the kings of Paramāra, Cāhmāna, Caulukya and Guhilota dynasties created a large mass of colophons. Their importance has inspired modern scholars to bring out certain separate collections of these in published form. The manuscript reports of Peterson and Bhandarkar contain large number of such Jaina colophons. The published manuscript catalogues of Jaina Bhandaras of Patan and Jesalmer and collections like Jaina Pustaka Prasasti -Sangraha ed. by Jinavijayamuni, Prasasti-Sangraha, (two parts), by A. M. Shah, Ahmedabad, Praśastisangraha by Bhujabala Sastri and Jaina Grantha Praśastisañgraha by Kastoorcanda Kasaliwal contain large number of such colophons. These colophons are the treasure of yielding information on the history of a large number of aristocratic and middle class Jaina families of medieval period.
As regards the genesis of colophons of texts (grantha) as well as manuscripts, Muni Puṇyavijayaji held that authors and manuscript writers took this idea from the inscriptions etc. on temples,
