________________ Vaishali Prakrit Jain Research Institute 487 Tatia (1963); Acbarya Tulsi, Muni Shri Dhanarajaji Maharaj (1964); Dr. P. L. Srivastava, Professor D. Malavaniya, Professor A. L. Thakur, Pandit Darbari Lal Kothia, Shri Laksmi Chandra Jain (1965); Dr. Gulab Chandra Chaudhury, Dr. Sukumar Sen (1966); Dr. A. N. Upadhye, Pt. Ram Padaratha Sharma (1967); Sadhvi Kasturaji, Pt. Vidyadhar Shastri, Dr. P. S. Mubar (1968); Dr. Nemi Chandra Shastri, Principal Ram Karan Sharma (1969); Dr. N. K. Devaraja, Dr. Satkari Mookerjee (1970); Principal N. K. Gaur, Dr. D. S. Triveda (1973); Pandit Kailash Chandra Shastri (1974); Shri Vijoy Singh Nahar, Pandit Shobhakanta Jba (1975); Shri S. V. Sohoni, I. C. S., Shri Ganga Sharan Singh (1978); Dr. Pratap Chandra Chandra, Shri S.K. Srivastava, I.A.S., (1979); Shri Sanat Kumar Chaturvedi, I. A. S., (1980); Muni Shri Jinendra Varni ji, Muni Shri Padma Prakash Kaushal, Dr. D. S. Kothari, Dr. Shyam Nandan Kishore (1981); Sadhvi Chandana ji; Dr. Gustava Roth (1983); and Dr. Jagadish Chandra Jain (1984).1 Silver Jubilee (April 17, 1981) The Institute completed 25 years of its existence in December 1980. As a mark of its Silver Jubilee Celebrations the Institute honoured the Jaina Muni Shri Jinendra Varoi Ji with a Prasastipatha, Tamrapatra, Uttariya and Narikela on the occasion and also presented a cash award of Rs. 2500/(Rupees twentyfive hundred only) for his invaluable work Jinendra Siddhanta Kosa published in four volumes. The great Muniji later returned the amount to the Institute for the promotion of its academic activities. Uniqueness The Vaishali Prakrit Jain Research Institute is important and unique in the educational set-up of India on many counts. First, it is situated at one of the most important sites in Bihar, gear the ruins of ancient Vaisali, the earliest republic of the world with glorious heritage of culture and learning on the one hand and the birthplace of Lord Mahavira, the great religious teacher, on the other. Shri R. R. Diwakar in his appeal for the establishment of the Institute bad aptly said: "... Vaisali should not merely remain a place of pilgrimage or an archaeologist's paradise. It should be a lively centre of deeper learning and research so that scholars may study all the aspects and trace the course of the great and inspiring teaching that emanated from here." 1. Sec J. C. Mathur and Yogendra Mishra, Vaisali-Digdarsana (in Hindi), Vaisali Sangha, 1981, pp. 123-139 for details of these seminars (1963-81) and their participants. 2. 'Appeal from Sri R. R. Diwakar, the Governor of Bihar', p. 1.
