London 22nd March 2011
The Institute of Jainology (“IoJ”) held a reception at the British Library on 22nd March 2011. The reception celebrated the JAINpedia display in The John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library.
The event began with JAINpedia guides taking the guests on a tour of the magnificent display of the Jain manuscripts, which are being displayed in the most prestigious of galleries in British Library. The guests then had an opportunity to meet each whilst enjoying the appetizing Jain snacks.
Professor Nalini Balbir, Ahimsa Award winner, JAINpedia content director and co-curator of the JAINpedia display at the British Library was billed to address the guests with a talk on the Jain collection at British Library after the snacks.
Visiting Samanijis, Pratibha Pragyaji, and Rohit Pragyaji graced the event with a wonderful recital of the Namokar Mantra before the lecture began.
Subject for Prof. Nalini Balbir’s talk was Jain treasures of the British Library. She started with the explanation of the reason for commissioning of the manuscripts in the ancient times – it was considered as one of the various pious undertakings which helped with gaining religious merit. The desire to gain the merits was strong within the lay community resulting in large number of beautifully painted manuscripts and subsequently production of several copies of these.
The JAINpedia display of some 40 objects selected from the world’s largest collection of Jain manuscripts outside India, comprises of manuscripts with beautiful calligraphy and brightly coloured wonderful paintings. These include the Samgrahaniratna, the Kalpasūtra, the Uttarādhyayanasūtra, and very interestingly the Ādityavaravratakatha, a Jain Story from the Digambara sect, the only manuscript from this sect in the display.
The British Library is one of the leading global research libraries and holds well over 150 million items, in most known languages from a multitude of cultures around the world. The Library’s Jain collection is the most significant and largest outside of India, many sold or bequeathed by eminent scholars of the past. Prof. Nalini highlighted the history and importance about some of the Jain collections. To read the full script of her lecture please click here.
The success of the exhibition and the interest shown in the collection by Jain community members in particular and wider public in general, has persuaded the British Library to extended the exhibition until the end of June 2011, A great opportunity to for families and children is being presented to the public on Mahavir Jayanti Day on 15th April 2011, when JAINpedia in conjunction with The British Library are holding a day long family event. Activities include craft workshops for children, a dance 
recital, story-telling sessions and display tours.
To find out more about the project and its events please visit www.jainpedia.org or contact the JAINpedia team on info@jainpedia.org 020 8236 1001.