Wellcome Collection restitutes 2,000 Jain manuscripts to UK-based community

The Wellcome Collection in London is returning 2,000 Jain manuscripts acquired in 1919 from a temple in what is now Pakistan. The transfer, formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding signed at the House of Commons, goes to the Institute of Jainology for deposit at the University of Birmingham's Centre of Jain Studies. This is the largest group of Jain manuscripts outside South Asia. The unusual restitution bypasses India, where most Jains now live, because no suitable single institution exists there. After the 1947 partition, Jains fled Pakistan, leaving no depository. The manuscripts, bought for 5 rupees each by Henry Wellcome's agent Paira Mall, include a 1592 medical treatise in early Hindi and a 16th-century Kalpasutra. Half have health connections. Wellcome's Adrian Plau acknowledges the low price was against the owners' interests. Trustee Mehool Sanghrajka expressed gratitude for the manuscripts' preservation. The physical transfer begins this year and may take several years. Wellcome is in private talks about returning other holdings from its 265,000-item manuscript collection.