Mahavira and his Teaching

SR No.: 008019
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti
Publication Year: 1977
Total Pages: 509
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Biography, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 12 MB

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ANAND KRISHNA
Nālandā. Even the illustrations from Nālandā belong to the E. Indian (Pāla) style and therefore our examples are more valuable as they conform to the national Apabhramsa style in its eastern form. Besides, these drawings are non-Jaina (Buddhist), which give us another proof that the style was commonly used by various religions and sects.
Some other treatments in the drawings deserve our attention. The shrine (fig. 1, text fig. C) and the flames (fig. 2, text fig. F) show angular treatments. On the other hand, the hillock (fig. 1, text fig. D) is an instance of decorative treatments in the style, as the peaks curve schematically at the top.2
1.
The Struggle for Empire, Vol. V, (ed. R. C. Majumdar and A. D. Pusalkar, Bombay 1957, pl. LXII, Fig. 140. S. K. Saraswati informs me that this is a manuscript of the Astasahasrika Prajñāpāramit, and is in the collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (No. 4713) and was first published by Hara Prasad Sastri in Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Government Collection, A.S.B., Vol. I, p. 6. The manuscript has a number of illustrations and is dated in the 6th regnal year of Mahi Pala; I could not see the publication. Stella Kramrisch published onc illustration from the manuscript in "Nepalese Painting", Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Vol. I, No. 2, pl. XXXVII; however she has not given the other details of the manuscript. Curiously the peaks in this sculpture resemble similar treatments in the Maha Purāņa manuscript in the Sri Digambara Nayā Mandir, Delhi (see in Moti Chandra's "An Illustrated Ms. of the Mahäpuräna" etc., Lalit Kala, no. 5, figs. 6-8.
Such treatments again appears in the Mahåpurāna illustrated manuscript in the collection of the Sri Digambar Jain Atisaya Kşetra, Jaipur, (sec in Karl Khandalavala's and Moti Chandra's, New Documents of Indian Painting, Bombay 1969, pls. 148-149). Saryu Doshi discovered certain manuscripts of the Yasodhara Carita from the collection of the S.D.S.A.K. which she attributed to the Palam (Delhi) style. Here again, the treatments of the rocks are similar to the incised drawings in the stone sculpture from Bodh Gayā. Thus, this seems to be a common characteristic among the various sub-styles of northern (and eastern) India.