Ganesh Varni
| Kshullak Ganeshprasad Varni | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Religion | Jainism |
| Personal | |
| Born |
1 January 1874 Hansera, Lalitpur, U.P. |
| Died | 5 December 1961 (aged 87) Isri, Jharkhand |
| Religious career | |
| Rank | Kshullak |
| Teacher | Shiksha-Guru Gopaldas Bariaya, Ambadas Shahsti |
| Works | Meri Jivan Gatha (1945), Jain philosophy based on Acharya Kundakunda's Samayasar |
Kshullak Ganeshprasad Varni (Hindi:पूज्य 105 श्री गणेश प्रसाद वर्णी, Gujarati: શ્રી ૧૦૫ ક્ષુલ્લક ગણેશપ્રસાદ વર્ણી Kannada:ಶ್ರೀ ೧೦೫ ಕ್ಷುಲ್ಲಕ ಗಣೆಶಪ್ರಸಾದ ವರ್ಣೀ) (1874 – 5 December 1961) was one of the foundational figures of the modern Indian Digambara intellectual tradition during the early 20th century. He was the founder of several schools and institutions of advanced learning including Syadvad Mahavidyalaya at Varanasi in 1905, Varanasi and Satark-Sudhataringini Digamber Jain Pathshala, now Ganesh Digamber Jain Sanskrit Vidyalaya at Sagar.
Many of the Jain scholars today are products of the institutions found by Ganeshprasad Varni. Sahajananda Varni was one of his disciple. While Jinendra Varni never heard him speaking, he was deeply influenced by him and had compiled a volume "Varni Darshan" to commemorate Ganeshprasad Varni's birth centenary in 1975.
Ganesh Prasad Ji Varni was born to Hira Lal and Ujyari Devi in village Hansera in district Lalitpur (U.P.), who belonged to the Asati community. While the Asatis are mostly Vaishnava, his father had a deep faith in the Namokar Mantra. He used to live in a Jain neighbourhood and visit the Jain temple near his house in Mandawara. Influenced by lectures there, at the age of ten, he took a vow to take meals before sunset throughout his life. During his yajnopavita ceremony, he had an argument with the priest and his mother, and declared that he will be a Jain henceforth. his He passed the middle examination at the age of fifteen. He did not have any aptitude for shop-keeping, his father's profession, and became a school teacher.
He came into contact with a religious minded lady Chiranjibai of Simra through Karorelal Bhaiji, a spiritual man of Jatara. She developed much affection for him and treated him like her son. She supported his desire of obtaining advanced religious education spiritual development.
At that time there were no advanced scholars in the Bundelkhand region. He studied at Jaipur, Khurja, Bombay, Mathura, Varanasi and other places with great difficulty. Because of his lack of funds, he occasionally had to starve accept humiliations. he studied with Pt. Panna Lal Backliwal and Baba Gurdayal at Bombay to pass Ratnakarand Shravakachar and Katantra-panchsanndhiki examinations. There he also met Pt. Gopaldas Baraiya, with whom he studied Nyayadipika and Sarvarthsidhi after he had studied of Nyaya (logic) and grammar at Khurja. He was sometimes turned down by reputed Brahmin teachers. He studied under Pt. Ambadas Shastri at Varanasi. He then studied at Chakauti and Navadweep to acquire the Nyayacharya degree.
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