Treasure trove of Jain manuscripts
THE RICHNESS of Jain philosophy and literature has been captured in hundreds of manuscripts, some over a thousand years old that are scattered in museums, libraries, temples and private collections throughout the world.
THE RICHNESS of Jain philosophy and literature has been captured in hundreds of manuscripts, some over a thousand years old that are scattered in museums, libraries, temples and private collections throughout the world.
Kundakunda Gyanpeeth Research Centre on MG Road that houses a library of Digambar Jain manuscripts and books has catalogued 479 manuscript libraries spread across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and border areas of Uttar Pradesh in last three years.
The cataloguing included physical details of every manuscript with information like its first and last line, name of writer, commentator, language and script used, number of leaflets and status of its totality.
It was one of the five nodal agencies selected for cataloguing under National Register of Jain Manuscripts programme introduced by Union Culture Ministry to mark the 2600 birth anniversary of Lord Mahavir in 2003. Last year, Gyanpeeth was made one of the 19 Manuscript Resource Centres (MRC) of the country under National Commission for Manuscripts.
Commission, a Government entity, is completing three years of formation tomorrow. Under its five-year plan, Kundakunda has been asked to enlist the uncatalogued Jain manuscript libraries of Madhya Pradesh and the non-Jain ones found in south west of the State.
