At the Mahavir Janma Kalyanak Celebrations held at the House of Commons on 14 May 2026, Professor Nalini Balbir delivered a keynote presentation marking an important moment in the history of Jain cultural heritage in Britain. The occasion coincided with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the future care, preservation, study and return of the Wellcome Collection’s Jain manuscripts.
Professor Balbir, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Jain literature, manuscript culture and classical Indian languages, used her address to place the Wellcome Collection in its wider historical and intellectual context. She reminded the audience that Jain manuscripts held in British institutions are not only scholarly resources, but living witnesses to a tradition of learning, devotion, patronage and preservation sustained by Jain communities over many centuries.
The Wellcome Collection contains approximately 2,000 Jain manuscript items, acquired in 1919 by Sir Henry Wellcome. Originating from regions that are now part of India and Pakistan, the collection represents one of the most significant bodies of Jain manuscript material held outside South Asia. Its contents reflect the breadth of Jain intellectual life: canonical scriptures, philosophy, ethics and ritual texts sit alongside works on medicine, astronomy, astrology, cosmology and other sciences.
In her presentation, Professor Balbir drew attention to the remarkable diversity of the collection. She highlighted illuminated Kalpasūtra manuscripts, narrative works such as the story of Kālakācārya and the Yaśodhara story, cosmological diagrams, horoscopes, and scientific texts connected with astronomy and the transmission of knowledge across Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian intellectual worlds. She also emphasised the importance of manuscript colophons, patronage records and illustrated folios as sources for understanding Jain social history, religious practice and artistic achievement.
The signing of the MoU at the House of Commons therefore marked more than an institutional agreement. It represented a significant step in the recognition of Jain heritage, the responsibilities of custodianship, and the possibility of renewed cooperation between British institutions, scholars and Jain communities. Professor Balbir’s speech, reproduced here, offers both a scholarly introduction to the Wellcome manuscripts and a powerful reflection on their cultural, religious and historical significance.
Read Nalini Balbir’s Keynote Presentation