Parshvanath Vidyapith Swarna Jayanti Granth

SR No.: 012051
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain, Ashok Kumar Singh
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 402
Language: Hindi, English
Classification: Smruti_Granth & Articles
File Size: 23 MB

Page 49

Abu, Kumbharia, etc. have been referred to but a large number of Jaina shrines from Rajasthan deserve further research and publication. Also we expect special monographs on Jaina shrines from Karnataka, Andhra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Jaina Art and literature from South India should be intensively studied in order to appreciate fully the contribution of Jainism to Indian Art and Culture.
Paintings of the Jaina Caves at Ellora have been practically neglected. Some Jaina charities should be diverted to the publication of good plates in colour of all the paintings in the Jaina caves at Ellora, Sittanvasal, Tirumalai etc.
A work on Jaina Pațas and Pațţikās in the collections of the L. D. Institute, Ahmedabad is under preparation by me but to do full justice to the Jaina contribution in the field of painted wooden book covers of palm leaf Jaina manuscripts, I am awaiting an opportunity to make a first hand study of all the Jaina Pațţikās at Jesalmere. I have been able to locate some Jaina Pațţikās (painted wooden book-covers) to the eleventh century A. D. As I have proved elsewhere Khandalavala's theory that sometime during the Rama päla period a Jaina monk saw a painted Buddhist pätali and thereafter the Jainas started making painted Jaina Pattikäs is wild and without any evidence to prove it. In fact in India many such activities have been undertaken by all the three main religions of India (namely, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism) in the same period and their source is the common cultural heritage of the whole of India. It is almost impossible in such cases to say with confidence who was first in a particular field.
The Jaina contribution in the field of Pațas or big paintings on cloth and paper seems to have been very extensive. There are Tantric Pațas and mere Citrapatas and Patas depicting Jaina conceptions of cosmography. Some of these are beautiful specimens of Art. The Vijaya Tantra, for example, in the Victorial and Albert Museum, dated in Samvat 1501 and the Pañcatirthapata from Champaner, published by N. G. Mehtha and then in colours by Moti Chandra, and dated in Samvat 1433 are important documents in the history of painting before Akbar. I hope more and more Jaina Patas will be collected and preserved by Indian Museums and Bhandaras and will be published.
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