JAINA has been taking its delegation to India for many charitable and humanitarian purposes. But May 15th, 2007 was the first time that JAINA took its delegation to attend the grand ceremony held at splendid and revered premises, Buckingham Palace. The delegation was led by JAINA President Kirit C. Daftary, joined by Director at Large, Arvin Shah and VRG Committee member Prakash Mody and others. Over 300 attendees from around the globe had gathered to attend launching of the Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts of The British Library by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. The project and the Catalogue is published by the Institute of Jainology, London and printed by the Mumbai Branch. IOJ recognized Professor Babir, Sheths from India and also posthumously Professor Tripathi, without whose cooperation this would not have been possible.
Dr. Nalini Balbir, Professor from University of Paris headed the project of cataloging Jain Manuscripts of Royal Library. It included manuscripts from the British Library, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Jain manuscripts kept there came not only from British sources, but also from German, Austrian and Indian scholars who felt it was the best and safest place to keep them. She said that "in our days of advanced technology, this kind of work is relevant not only for the sake of preservation, but also for understanding how social networks worked in the past. Copying a manuscript is a sort of collective undertaking, which implies not only the scribe, but individuals, joint families, local groups, and so forth who acted as sponsors. Jain manuscripts usually provide a wealth of information of this kind, which we have tried to investigate." She further mentioned that these manuscripts played an important part in the establishment of Jainism as a specific trend of thought distinct from Hinduism and Buddhism. It was through these manuscripts that European scholars realized that the Jains have their own scriptures.
The work which started in 1994 by Professor Tripathi was completed in 2005. According to Professor Tripathi, there are four definitions of Jain manuscripts. Whatever is written in the form of a Manuscript by a Jains is a Jain Ms; Whatever manuscript is written in Jain Nagari characters is a Jain Ms; Any Jain work sacred or even secular written in the form of a manuscript by a Jain or non-Jain is styled as a Jain Ms; any manuscript that is in the possession of a Jain individual or body is Jain manuscript. This catalogue deals only with the Jain work sacred or even secular written in the form of a manuscript by a Jain or non-Jain scholar.
These manuscripts date as far back as 1201 AD, are mostly on paper and palm leaf, in the pothi format i.e. where the length is greater than the width. The catalogue contains information from 1083 manuscripts. Catalogues of manuscripts are of the utmost significance as it is the only source to verify by comparison any inaccuracies with the current printed scriptures. The result of cataloguing is in the form of three volumes which include color plates as well as a CD containing 150 images. The vivid colors of the paintings are attractive and speak for themselves.
The Catalogue was presented to His Royal Highness who formally declared it as launched. His Royal Highness in his address recalled how he had initiated the formation of the Alliance for Religions & Conservation in Assisi during the 25th anniversary celebration of WWF of which he was the President. He recalled how Jains had also presented their Declaration on Nature to him at the Palace in 1990 and been given the recognition as the 8th major faith of the world. He also expressed a wish that the catalogues would encourage studies by the scholars and improve the understanding of the Jain philosophy worldwide.
John Eatwell, the Chairman of The British Library Board has remarked that Jainism's influence has spread out of all proportion to the number of followers, through Rajchandra, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Its lessons of Satyagraha - adherence to truth - and ahimsa - non-violence have become even more relevant in a world where man's inhumanity to man confronts us all.
JAINA has supported this program as a Patron of Institute of Jainology. It has a full set of catalogue housed at its library at Jain Center of Southern California in Los Angles. During your next visit to JAINA library don't forget to check out the catalogue of Jain Manuscripts.