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And quite recently, after a new research scholar has joined Smt. Ramarani Jaina Shodha Samsthana, attempts are being made by him to go through these manuscripts and he is successful in collecting the whereabouts of about seventy authors and their works in the research institute. He is publishing articles on them in series in Vivekabhyudaya, the journal of Smt. Ramarani Jaina Shodha Samsthana run by the Math.
The works of these authors which are not published so far and consequenly not known to others, contain the history of the locality, and of the social practices existed in historical times, and some contain the information regarding the principles to be follwed in building up of Jaina Temples in the region where we have got excessive rains and heat of the Torrid zone. These principles we do not know where they originated from. Some of these works are found to be the copies of great works which are known throughout India and these are useful in getting the correct texts of these volumes.
Another remarkable feature and asset of the manuscript library of Srimati Ramarani Jaina Shodha Samsthana is that it possesses a collection of very valuable historical documents which are in the form of copper plate inscriptions and they are 56 (Fifty six) in number. All these copper plate inscriptions are a very valuable source of historical information. The additional importance of these plates is that they are connected with the history of Moodbidri primarily, and of Karnataka, generally. Some of them throw light on the history of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and thus of the whole of South India. These inscriptions are all unpublished. Several educational institutions, colleges, research centres and scholars of distinction in Karnataka have been appealing us to publish these inscriptions, as they will make substantial contribution to history, literature, sociology, political science, economics, philology and philosophy. But the publication of these inscriptions is, in fact, a costly affair which requires a huge investment.
Most of the copper plate inscriptions are in Kannada language and Kannada script of the middle ages, which only experts can decipher. Anyway, the research scholars working in our research institute have been successful in reading almost all of them. Some of them are in Kannada script but in Sanskrit language while some others are in Kannada lauguage but in Sanskrit script, and one or two may be in Prakrit language also.
The dates of all the inscriptions range between 12th to 18th century. But it is a surprise and a point of appreciation that our ancestors preserved them all through the ages and handed down to us which bear inestimable historical and literary value. We hope that very soon all these inscriptions will get published.
We would like to mention that we have been collecting manuscript volumes from different individuals and institutions also who donate them to us. For example,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
