acharyas/atmaram.jpg · 1000×1250Born in 1882 at Rahon in Punjab, he lost his parents and grandmother as a child. A devoted shravak brought the boy to Acharya Motiram, and in 1894, aged about twelve, he took diksha under a tree at Banur. He mastered Sanskrit and Prakrit and read the Agamas deeply. He should not be confused with the earlier Punjabi monk Atmaramji, who became Vijayanand Suri. He was later declared Acharya of the Punjab Sthanakvasi sangh at Ludhiana.
In 1952 many Sthanakvasi groups met at Sadri in Rajasthan and joined to form the Vardhaman Sthanakvasi Shraman Sangh. Though elderly and frail, he was chosen as its first acharya for his learning and freedom from sectarian feeling. He wrote Hindi commentaries on many Agamas and, in Tattvartha Sutra Jainagama Samanvaya, showed that Umasvati's sutras match the Agamas. He bore a broken hip and failing eyesight calmly, and died in 1962.
