PT. PARAMANAND SHASTRI

PT. PARAMANAND SHASTRI
A keen researcher in the Jain literary and historical material, Pt. Paramanand Shastri was born in village Niwar in erstwhile Panna State (M.P.) in 1908. After receiving education at Ganesh Varni Digamber Jain Sanskrit Vidyalaya he studied Jain religion by himself. In 1936 he was appointed in Vir Seva Mandir at Sarsawa established by Acharya Jugal Kishore Mukhtar, and later brought to Delhi. There he put his heart and soul in research and study of old Jain books and furnished authentic material regarding period of many Jain Acharyas and their works and details about historically important persons through his over 350 notes and articles published in Anekant, Jain Sidhanta Bhaskar and other magazines. He edited Anekant for a number of years till his retirement from Vir Seva Mandir.

His important original work is Jain Dharma Ka Prachin Itihas (Part II) in which he has given introduction of about 700 Acharyas, scholars and poets of the time of Bhagwan Mahavir and after him. He has translated Samadhi Tantra Aur Istopdesh, Eki Bhava Stotra, Adhyatma Kamal Martand and has edited Mokshmarg Prakashak, Sukh Ki Ek Jhalak, Shravak Dharma Sangraha, Jain Mahila Shiksha Sangraha, Anubhava Prakash, Chidvilas, Jain Grantha Prashasti Sangraha (Part II) and historical preface of its Part I. His two books on Jain kings and historical persons and Hindi Sahitya Ka Vishad Itihas (containing introduction and literary achievements of about 500 Jain poets) are to be published soon. Address : F-95, Jawahar Park, West Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-51.