Jain Acharya Jayghoshsuri passes away

Ahmedabad: Acharya Jayghoshsuri, gachchadhipati of Jain community, passed away in Ahmedabad at a private hospital on Wednesday at an age of 85-years. Hospital authorities said that he was admitted for lung infection and was kept on ventilator for past nine days.

Acharya was in city for chaturmaas and was staying at Paldi Opera Jain Sangh.

He was heading the vast monk community of 612 monks including 52 acharya, 4 upadhyay and 60 panyas, said his devotees.

His ‘palkhi’ will start from Paldi Opera Jain Sangh to Ambli from 8am on Thursday. His last rites will be performed at Ambli at 3pm.

“He was born in Mumbai as Jawaharlal in the family having native in Patan. Influenced by religion, he had taken diksha at the age of 14 years in Mumbai from Acharya Bhuvanbhanusuri. He was known for his vast knowledge of shastra, aagam and other religious texts,” said a Jain community leader.

In his lifetime, he had wrote about 40,000 shlokas and due to expertise on diverse topics, he had earned sobriquet of ‘the living library of Jainism.’ He was scholar of Sanskrit, Prakrit languages along with grammar, nayaya and other literary forms.

Acharya Padmasagarsuri termed the Acharya as 'mahanayak' of Jain community and said that he influenced Jain scholarship deeply with his knowledge and expertise. Muni Mitranandsagar said that the entire Jain community is paying homage to one of the foremost Acharya of his time and a guiding light to millions.