Jain Book History: Nineteenth Century Arguments over whether or not to Print the Sacred Scriptures

The Jains came relatively late to the adoption of print technology. Whereas most other religious communities in South Asia were extensively printing books and pamphlets using lithography and movable type by the middle of the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1870s that we see significant Jain printing. The first two sustained Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jain print projects were the four-volume Prakaraṇ Ratnākar published by Bhīmsingh Māṇak (Māṇek) in Bombay between 1876 and 1881, and the twenty-three books of the Āgama Saṅgrah sponsored by Rāy Dhanpatisingh Bahādur of Murshidabad and printed in Calcutta, Bombay, Ahmedabad, Banaras and Murshidabad between 1874 and 1900. Both projects faced opposition from more conservative elements in Jain society. This paper analyzes the publishers’ arguments in defense of the use of mechanical print to publish Jain religious texts.