Sanskrit Manuscripts : Jaṃbūdvīpa no vīcāra

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Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> The <i>Jambūdvīpa no vicāra</i> is a text in Gujarati prose belonging to the tradition of Jain cosmological writings. It gives a description of the Jambūdvīpa and of all its different parts with numbers and sizes. <i>Jumboo Dvipa Punotii</i> on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(1);return false;'>1r</a> would point to the <i>Jambūdvīpaprajñapti</i>, the main Śvetāmbara canonical source on Jain cosmology, but this is not the text written here. This manuscript was copied in Palanpur (Gujarat) in 1822 CE like <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01266-00007'>Add. 1266.7 </a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01266-00008'> Add. 1266.8</a> and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01266-00009'>Add. 1266.9 </a>. It was copied by the same monk who also copied <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01266-00009'>Add. 1266.9 </a>. It is likely that this work, clearly meant for pedagogical use, was written for Lieut. Major Colonel William Miles (1780-1860) like the others of the group, for him to learn about the basics of Jain doctrine in which he had interest, as is evidenced by his paper "On the Jainas of Gujerat and Mârwâr" (1832). Rather than a copy made on the basis of another manuscript, it could be the composition of the monk-scribe himself. William Miles's interest in Jain cosmology is clear from another fact: he was offered by a Jain priest a large cloth painting of the <i>Aḍhāīdvīpa</i> which was executed in 1816 CE and gifted by him in 1837 to the Royal Asiatic Society, London, where it is kept at present (Lazenbatt 2014). </p>