London’s Wellcome Collection to Transfer 2,000 Manuscripts to Jain Community, But They Will Stay in UK
London’s Wellcome Collection announced plans to transfer 2,000 Jain manuscripts to the Jain community, with the materials moving to the University of Birmingham’s Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies rather than being sent to India or Pakistan. The Dharmanath Network, established in 2023 and financed by Jain communities in the UK, the US, and India, will steward the collection to expand community access and research, following years of dialogue with the UK-based Institute of Jainology. The manuscripts date from the 15th to 19th centuries and cover Jain religion, culture, medicine, and literature in languages and scripts including Prakrit and Sanskrit, Gujarati, Rajasthani, and early Hindi. Highlights include a 16th-century copy of the Kalpasutra and an early Indian independence-era document critical of British rule; Wellcome says about 1,200 manuscripts were purchased by founder Henry Wellcome in 1919 from a single temple in Punjab (recorded as “Patli” or “Pattli”), and provenance research was supported by the Art Fund’s 2021 Headley Fellowship awarded to Adrian Plau.
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This story was covered in Auction Fever, Restitution Fights, and Workers Rising