Sharadaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Foundation : It was founded in 1989 under the inspiration of Sharadaben Chimanbhai Sheth with a view to fulfill her dream of having an institute of Oriental Learning and Research.

Founder : Sharadaben Chimanbhai Charitable Trust.

Member-Trustees of The Board :
Shree Ajayabhai Chimanbhai
Shree Shrenikabhai Kastoorbhai
Shree Arvindabhai Narottambhai
Shree Bipinabhai Chandulal
Shree Anilabhai Dalal

Location : Centre is situated in the heart of Shahibaug, a placid and prosperous locality of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. During last four years the Centre has grown up into a complex full of greenery dotted with dancing peacocks. It is well furnished and spacious in accommodation.

Objective : The main objective of the Centre is to set a landmark in the field of advance learning and researches in Indology. Some other objectives as to supplementary to the above objective are as under :
(1) To provide maximum facilities to the researchers for outstanding research in religion, philosophy and literature.
(2) Publication of the books for research purposes.

Facilities : To carry out the multifarious study and research in Indology the Centre has facilities as under :
(1) It is fully equipped with modern equipments as six Computers with their complete accessories, copier and complete desk top publishing system to boost the research activities and fasten the performance and result.
(2) The Centre is equipped with two more latest devices-
(i) CD-ROM - a new illustrated multimedia tool of education which, in a form of small disc consists of several volumes of encyclopedia, the world's greatest literature, languages, history, philosophy and music.
(ii) Modem- a worldwide latest device for exchange and transfer of computer data through telephone.
(3) Library : It has a rich Library equipped with more than 12,000 books on religion, philosophy, history, sanskrit and some other subjects along with a rich collection of journals/magazines and periodicals of oriental learning. Apart from this, it has a separate lending collection of books for general readers.
(4) Cassette Library :
Centre has a lending cassette library consisting above 500 cassettes audio and video both on music, bhajans, discourses, speeches of distinguished scholars and saints.
(5) Centre has a collection of 85,000 verses from complete Jain Agamas, computerized in such a fashion that transliteration of these verses can be made within a few minutes in sixteen languages as Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, English, Sanskrit, etc. Within a split of moment any proposed word with its location in the whole of the Jain Agamas can be traced out. This is an unique and unparallel work of the Centre and has been very useful for the researchers.
(6) It has a collection of 25,000 articles/essays on Jainology published in different journals/magazines in different languages.

Activities : The Centre performs the following activities to enhance the awareness of the richness of our heritage.
(i) Lectures and seminars : The Centre periodically holds seminars, symposia, conference and workshops in various disciplines for scholars and learned individuals. Centre often invites eminent scholars and speakers for lectures and demonstrations.
(ii) Since last year Centre has started a short term study programme in different branches of Indology as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali and Philosophy. It also provides stipends to the students.

Projects : (i) The Centre has undertaken a project on History of 'Shraman Culture' under the guidance of Prof. M. A. Dhanky, a well known scholar of history and sculpture. The work is in progress on preparing an authentic history of 2500 years comprising ganadharas, great monks, nuns, lay followers, kings and scholars.
(ii) Another big project undertaken by Centre is 'Articles/Essays and Catalogue on Jainology Past and Present'. Regarding this project Centre is collecting all the articles/essays on Jainology published in any language in India or abroad from the very beginning of printing technology. Approximately 25,000 articles/essays have been collected so far.
(iii) Computerization of prose part of Jain Agamas, Tripitakas and Upanishads.
(iv) Semantic Compendium : The Centre is working on words used by different scholars at different periods of Jain history .
(v) Dictionary : The Centre is to prepare a dictionary from Prakrit to Hindi, Gujarati, English and vice-versa.
(vi) Publication : The Centre has succeeded to bring out seven publications-
(1) Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Patana Jain Bhandara, Volume I, II (Hindi)
(2) Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Patana Jain Bhandara, Volume III (Hindi)
(3) Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Patana Jain Bhandara, Volume IV (Hindi)
(4) Yogadarshan Tatha Yogavinshika, Ed. by Pt.Sukhalal Sanghavi.(Hindi)
(5) A Treasury of Jain Tales, Ed. by Dr. V. M. Kulkarni. (English)
(6) Dharmaratnakarandaka, Ed. By Panyas Munichandravijaya Gani.(Sanskrit)
(7) Tattvarthadhigama Sutra - Sabhashya Bhashantara, Ed. by Muni Akshaya Chandra Sagaraji. (Gujarati)
(vii) The Centre is to launch very shortly a trilingual (Hindi, English and Gujarati) annual journal named `Nirgrantha' which will
consist of the monographs from the subjects - Jainology, History, Culture and Philosophy.

The visitors and researchers are most welcome to avail the facilities we have and ventilate their suggestions if any.

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Article Courtesy : Mr. 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 : pkshah1@attglobal.net

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Mail to : Ahimsa Foundation
www.jainsamaj.org
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