Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c5.16

c5.16

From the study of the biographies of the great supporters of Jainism after the 10th century, it is evident that the Jain monks had realised the great educational value of the Jñāna Bhaṇḍārs. They took great pains in explaining to the Jain intelligentsia the importance of the religious texts and the works of the great masters; the religious susceptibilities of the common folk was stirred by pointing to them the holiness of the ancient texts, and to those, who cared more to see their names in the colophons than anything else, the temptation of perpetuating their names to the posterity was held out. Besides these measures, several functions, such as, Jñānapūjā, etc., were held from time to time to keep up the interest of laymen in learning. Actuated by the above considerations, the great Jain kings, their ministers and bankers, for the expatiation of their sins, or for hearing the recitation of their religious literature, or for the spiritual welfare of their selves or their departed kith and kin, ordered the composition of new works, or purchased the disbursed Jñāna Bhaṇḍārs and presented such collections to their revered teachers.³