Muni Jinvijayji

Muni Jinvijayji Biography

Muni Jinvijayji, shortly called Jinvijayji was a religious scholar associated with Jainism, and a Jain monk. He mostly dealt with orientalism, archeology, indology and Jainism through his works. He had published more than 20 books and has also edited and translated many other books to Gujarati. In 1961, government of India honoured him with Padma Shree for his outstanding contributions towards literature. He served as an editor of the books - Puratana Prabandha Sangraha, Prabandhakosa, Prabandhacintamani and many more. Kumarapala caritrasaṃgraha, Karnamrrta-prapa, Hetubindutika, Auktikapada, Uktiyaka and Sandesh Rasak are among his published works.

He was born in Rupaheli, Mewad near Udaipur in present day Rajasthan. He was born to Vriddhisinh and Rajkumari on 27 January 1888. The name given by his parents are Kishansinh Parmar, who passed away when Jinvijayji was very young. After that he came into contact with Muni Devihans, and drawn towards Jainism. He was initiated as Sthanakvasi Jain monk in 1903, and later initiated in Samvegi order of Shvetambara Jain monk. He took the new name Muni Jinvijay after initiation. But after a few years, he got bored with sainthood and renounced it to restart his life as a normal human being.

He took the job of a professor, and worked with Gujarat Vidyapith as a principal of archeology department for a brief period, as insisted by Mahatma Gandhi. He went to Germany in 1928 to study Indology and when he returned one year later, he joined freedom struggle movement. He also faced jailing term. He joined Shantiniketan as a professor of Jain literature in 1932 and worked for 4 years. After that he served as an administrator of many organizations related to history and Indology. He passed away in 1976.

Published: July 28, 2018

Updated: July 28, 2018