The Wellcome Collection in London announced Friday its plans to return 2,000 manuscripts to the Jain community.
In an unusual move, however, they will not be returned to Pakistan, where many of the manuscripts were purchased a century ago, or to India, where the majority of Jains live today. Instead, they will head to the University of Birmingham’s Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies, which was established in 2023 and is wholly financed by Jain communities living in the UK, the US, and India.
In a release, the collection said it “believes this to be the most appropriate place to maximise community access, deepen research opportunities and safeguard the future of this significant collection.” The transfer comes after “several years of open dialogue” between the Wellcome Collection and the UK-based Institute of Jainology.
The release adds that the Dharmanath Network “will open the collection to those researchers and faith communities who are best placed to read, interpret and translate their content for a global audience.”
In a statement, Marie-Helene Gorisse, an assistant professor at Birmingham who leads the Dharmanath Network, said, “By working together, we will make sure that the return of the manuscripts by Wellcome Collection to the Jain community has maximum impact for students, researchers, members of the community, and for the general public. By securing access to this rich Jain heritage, we aim to raise awareness of Jain philosophy and culture, which can benefit the common project of living well in a diverse society.”
The collection ranges from manuscripts from the 15th century to the 19th century with the texts exploring different topics related to Jainism, including religion, culture, medicine, and literature. They are written in different languages and scripts, such as Prakrit and Sanskrit, Gujarati, Rajasthani, and early Hindi scripts.
Highlights include a 16th-century copy of the Kalpasutra, one of Jainism’s important sculptures, as well as an early document from the Indian independence movement that “heavily critiques the ethical foundations of British rule in India,” per the Wellcome.
The collection was mostly catalogued in the early 2000s Kanhaiyalal Virji Sheth and Kalpana Sheth, via the Institute of Jainology. The UK-based Art Fund’s 2021 Headley Fellowship was given to Adrian Plau, the Wellcome’s collections information lead, to conduct research into this restitution.
The Wellcome Collection’s holdings of Jain manuscripts are believed to be the largest outside of South Asia. Some 1,200 of the 2,000 manuscripts were purchased by the institution’s founder, Henry Wellcome, in 1919 from a single temple whose name was not recorded, but the acquisition documents label it as Patli or Pattli in India’s Punjab state, near the present-day Pakistan border, according to the Art Newspaper. “The are several villages or towns with this name, but no Jain temple could be tracked down there,” the paper reports. The collection’s other 800 manuscripts were acquired from multiple sources in present-day Pakistan.
In a statement about the manuscripts’ transfer, Mehool Sanghrajka, managing trustee of the Institute of Jainology, described it as a “brave decision” that serves as “a model for other faith communities,” adding that many of the documents likely would not have “survived the turmoil in India post-independence,” including Partition, in which the majority of Jains were expelled from Pakistan.
According to TAN, Wellcome likely paid 5 rupees for each manuscript, or about 6,000 rupees in total; at the time, 15 rupees would be the equivalent to £1, bringing the total to £400. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around £18,200 ($24,243) today, per the Bank of England’s inflation calculator.
“We believe that rather than judging historical events with modern eyes,” Sanghrajka added, “we should find ways through collaboration to transform Jain scholarship and research and give the community access to its cultural heritage. We look forward to our collective efforts in ensuring these treasures are accessible to future generations.”
“We have set the bar high for a collaborative and compassionate approach to restitution that recognises the hurt caused by unethical acquisition and retention of material heritage,” Daniel Martin, Wellcome Collection associate director, said in a statement.
