Shrut Panchami, The Great Festival of Protection of Rare Jain Texts and Scriptures

In Jainism, the festival of ‘Shrut Panchami’ (Gyan Panchami) is celebrated on the fifth day of Shukla Paksha of Jyestha month. On this day the Darshan of Lord Mahavira was presented in the form of a written text for the first time. Earlier Lord Mahavira only preached and his chief disciple (Gandhar) used to explain it to everyone, as there was no tradition of recording Mahavira’s speech then. He was remembered only by listening, that is why his name was ‘Shrut’.

This day has special importance in Jain society. Jain scriptures were written for the first time on this day. The knowledge given by Lord Mahavir was kept alive by many Acharyas under the Shrut tradition. Dharsenacharya gave a theoretical lecture to Pushpadanta and Bhootabali sages in the Chandra cave of Girnar mountain in Gujarat, after listening to which the sages composed a book and presented it on Jyeshtha Shukla Panchami.

According to a legend, 2,000 years ago, Param Pujya 108 Saint Shri Dharsenacharya, the veteran Acharya Ratna of Jainism, suddenly realized that the knowledge of Jainism acquired by him was limited to his speech only. He thought that if the memory power of the disciples is low, the voice of knowledge will not survive, in such a situation, the entire knowledge of Jainism will be destroyed by my taking samadhi. Then Dharsenacharya composed Shatkhandagam scripture with the help of Pushpadanta and Bhootabali, this scripture contains many important information related to Jainism. It was presented on the Panchami of Jyestha Shukla. On this auspicious occasion, many deities worshiped ‘Shatkhandagam’ with Namokar Mahamantra.

Its biggest feature was that from this day the Shruta tradition was started in the form of scripted tradition. That book is known as ‘Shatkhandagam’. From this day the Shrut tradition was started as a scripted tradition, hence this day is known as Shrut Panchami. Its another name is ‘Prakrit Bhasha Diwas’.

On the day of Shrut Panchami, ancient original scriptures handwritten in Prakrit, Sanskrit, and ancient languages in Jain temples are taken out from the scriptures. The scriptures are cleaned and wrapped in new clothes to protect the oldest scriptures. And worship these texts by sitting near the altar of God, because Jain scriptures were written and worshiped on this day, because before that Jain knowledge was going on in oral form through Acharya tradition.

On this day, Jains celebrate the festival by wearing yellow clothes and taking out a procession of Jinvani, as well as publishing unpublished rare books/scriptures, the people of the society perform this tradition by donating as much as they can. Kund-Kund  Gyanpeeth, which is the All India Jain Center of Zoroastrian College, today, on the auspicious day of Shrut Panchami, 3 Jain theses of the Jain Department were presented. All of them received their doctorate on 20 May 2023. Sadhvi Dr. Amitpragya Maharaj Sa, Dr. Chandan Anuj Jain, Dr. Urmi Pasad, Dr. Thakur, Ph. D. (Thesis) was dedicated. Which was glorified in Kund Kund Gyanpeeth today.

Indore Center Head: Dr. Anupama Vikas Jain