FW: Major Announcement - JAINA E-Library Project of Education Committee

[Pankaj Jain]

From: Pravin Shah [mailto:education at jaina.org] 
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 11:00 PM
To: jaina_teachers at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Major Announcement - JAINA E-Library Project of Education Committee

 

JAINA E-Library Project

Highlight 
Collection of 650 Religious E-Books (scanned books in pdf format) 
250,000 pages of Jain Literature 

Jain Swetämbar Ägams 
Jain Digambar Shästras 
Commentary Literature on Ägams 
Four Anuyogas 
Ancient and Modern Jain Literature 
Shrimad Räjchandra Vachanamrit 
Pujya Kanji swami – Songadh - Literature 
JAINA Education Books (Päthashälä and Reference Books)

Available at JAINA Convention 2007 (July 5 to 8 at New Jersey) 

Background 
The Jain philosophy is eternal but from time to time various great sages
known as Tirthankars have continually modified the Jain code of conduct and
practices based on time, place, and circumstances.  Approximately 2500 years
ago, Lord Mahävir, the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankar of this era, has
re-established such Jain religious order. 

Lord Mahävir’s preaching was compiled orally into many texts (sutras) by his
disciples.  These texts are known as Jain scriptures or Jain Ägams or Jain
Ägam Sutras.  Later on many Ächäryas have compiled orally commentaries on
Ägam sutras.  The Ägam sutras, commentaries, and other ancient Jain
literature were written down for the first time approximately 1000 years
(500 AD) after Lord Mahävir’s nirvana. 

Since then the ancient hand-written and modern printed Jain literature has
been preserved by its lay followers in various independent religious
libraries (Jnän Bhandär) and private homes for centuries throughout India.
This literature exists in various languages such as Ardha-Mägadhi-Präkrit,
Saurseni-Präkrit, Sanskrit, Prächin-Mahärästri, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannad,
Tamil, many other Indian languages, German, and English.  During the course
of time significant literature was destroyed due to various problems that
existed in storage facilities. 

To protect and preserve the existing literature and to provide reference
material to our Päthashälä teachers and academicians the Education Committee
of Federation of JAINA, North America, has launched a JAINA E-Library
project.  Under this project the Jain literature will be scanned and
converted electronically into E-Books and stored on the websites or in other
electronic media which has unlimited life expectancy.  The E-Library of Jain
literature will have Shvetämbar Ägams, Digambar Shästras, Four Anuyogas,
Commentary literature, and ancient and modern literature representing all
aspects of Jainism.  The E-library will also contain Jain Educational
material, audio, and video files of Jain songs, sutras, rituals, and
speeches in various languages. 

The success of JAINA E-Library project depends upon the cooperation and
support of various Jain organizations and individuals of India who have the
ownership of such material.  The Education committee will support any Jain
organization or individual who would like to participate in the JAINA
E-Library project.  This project will not only preserve and protect our old
heritage but will also make the Jain literature available without any charge
to every scholar throughout the world who has the desire to study different
aspects of Jain philosophy and literature. 

First Effort 
JAINA Education Committee in cooperation with Shri Suvidhi Manohar Jnän
Prakäshan Samiti of Aurangabad, India under the direction and blessings of
Pujya Shree Digambar Ächärya Suvidhi Sägarji Mahäräj is pleased to present
the first such effort of E-library of Jain scriptures, rare authentic
Shästras, ancient and modern Jain literature (more than 650 Books consisting
of 250,000 pages) of both Digambar and Shvetämbar traditions.  These rare
books were collected and scanned by Shree Suvidhi Manohar Jnän Prakäshan
Samiti under the guidance and blessings of Pujya Shree Digambar Ächärya
Shree Suvidhi Sägarji Mahäräj.  JAINA Education Committee has processed
these 250,000 scanned images and created a pdf file for each book. 

The committee is in process of establishing E-Library under JAINA website.
The E-Library of JAINA Website will be freely accessible any where in the
world.  Jaina Education committee in cooperation of the Jain Center of
Northern California will manage and maintain the E-Library and the website.
All the above 650 E-Books will be available on Jaina Website (www.jaina.org)
by Sept 2007. 

The JAINA education committee is very careful in the selection of the
material such that we do not violate any copyright law for the E-Library
project.  However significant number of people are and will be contributing
to this project and due to our oversight if we may make any error, please
forgive us and the committee will remove such material from the website as
soon as the owner of the material notifies us in writing at the following
JAINA Education Committee's postal address.  JAINA or its education
committee does not receive any money from the users of E-Library. 

In order to publicize the E-Library project, we have created two DVDs, which
contain the above 650 E-Books (250,000 pages of ancient and modern Jain
literature) and other material as indicated below in pdf file format. 

650 E-Books (250,000 pages of Jain Literature 
Shrimad Rajchandra Vachanamrit received from Shri Dineshbhai Mehta of Mumbai

Pujya Kanjiswami – Songadh literature collected from Atma Darma site and
other sourses 
JAINA Päthashälä Educational material and reference books

The above Two DVDs and a booklet providing the complete listings of all
books will be available at JAINA convention (JAINA Education Booth). The
total cost of two DVDs and 32 page booklet will be $5.00 which is below the
overall cost of the production. 

However our long term strategy is to make all E-Books available on the JAINA
website and any person from anywhere in the world may freely access the
E-Library Material. 

Appreciations 
We are very grateful to Pujya Shree Digambar Ächärya Shree Suvidhi Sägarji
Mahäräj for his total support and blessings. 

We are thankful to 

*	Shri Bharat Kumar Jain Papdival of Shree Suvidhi Manohar Jnän
Prakashan Samiti Aurangabad and Dr. Sagarmal Jain, founder Director of
Prächya Vidyäpith, Shäjäpur, MP and a Secretary, Pärshvanäth Vidyäpith,
Väränasi for providing scanned images and full cooperation to support the
project now and for future work
*	Ketan Shah and other computer staff members of Mahävir Ärädhanä
Kendra – Kobä, Ahmedabad, for verification 600 E-Book folders consisting of
250,000 scanned images
*	Bhävesh Shah, Ashish and Purvi Mody of Raleigh NC, for carrying out
data processing work of converting 250,000 scanned color jpg images data
into black and white pdf files for 600 E-Books
*	Girish Shah and Prem Jain of Northern California Jain Center for the
support of the website.

Request for Contribution 
The E-Library project effort of the Jaina Education Committee will be funded
from the contribution received from donors throughout the world.  Any
individual can contribute to this project. Please make your check to
Education Committee – Federation of JAINA and mail at the following address.
Your contribution is tax deductible in USA.  For donors of India and other
countries, please send an e-mail at the following e-mail address. 

The JAINA E-Library project is a work in progress; we welcome your comments
and suggestions. 

_____________________________________________ 
Pravin K.  Shah, 
Chairperson, JAINA Education Committee, 
Federation of Jain Associations in North America 
509 Carriage Woods Circle 
Raleigh, NC 27607-3969 USA 
E-mail – education at jaina.org, pkshah101 at gmail.com 
Tele – 919-959-4994 
June 16, 2007 
Major Announcement - JAINA E-Library Project of Education Committee