Wellcome Collection to return 2,000 Historical Manuscripts to Jain Community

The return of the collection of more than 2,000 manuscripts, held at Wellcome Collection, London, for more than a century, is the result of several years of open dialogue and collaboration with Wellcome Collection and the Institute of Jainology.  

Jainism is an Indian religion that emphasises spiritual purity, self-discipline and non-violence (ahimsa) toward all living creatures and whose 24th and last enlightened teacher lived in the 6th century BCE.  

The collection spans 15th-century illustrated manuscripts to unique texts from the 19th century, covering religion, literature, medicine and culture, in Prakrit and Sanskrit, Gujarati, Rajasthani and early Hindi scripts. Among them is a unique and powerful early example of the Indian independence movement’s ethical principles that Gandhi later drew on and made famous. The document heavily critiques the ethical foundations of British rule in India.

Older manuscripts include a rare and magnificently illustrated, early 16th-century copy of an important Jain scripture, the ‘Kalpasutra’; and a slim, fragile and battered paper manuscript dated 1688, possibly the earliest surviving copy of the first medical treatise in early Hindi, Nainsukh’s ‘Vaidyamanotsav’ (‘A Celebration of Physicians’), 1592. The manuscripts provide an important window onto the history of health and human experience.

The collection will initially be moved to the Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies at the University of Birmingham, which 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.

Established in 2023, the Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies is the first research institution in the UK to be wholly financed by Jain communities in the UK, USA and India. Wellcome Collection believes this to be the most appropriate place to maximise community access, deepen research opportunities and safeguard the future of this significant collection.

More than half of the material at Wellcome Collection was acquired for Sir Henry Wellcome from a single Jain temple in Punjab that no longer exists. They were bought at a low price and against the best interests of their original owners. The agreement demonstrates Wellcome Collection’s commitment to supporting a more equitable future through the inclusive, collaborative and ethical management of its collections.  

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed at an event in the House of Commons on 14 May between Wellcome Trust for Wellcome Collection, the Institute of Jainology and the University of Birmingham and a full legal agreement will subsequently be drawn up in accordance with the MoU.  

Initial research and scoping of this restitution programme was funded through the Headley Fellowship awarded by the Art Fund in 2021 to Wellcome Collection’s Collections Information Lead, Dr Adrian Plau. The collection was mainly catalogued in the early 2000s by Dr Kanhaiyalal Virji Sheth and Dr Kalpana Sheth, facilitated through the Institute of Jainology, and their notes will be made accessible on Wellcome Collection’s website as part of the agreement.

Main Image: THE WELLCOME COLLECTION