World Jain Conference 1987 4th Conference

SR No.: 014038
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satish Jain, Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Ahimsa International
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 202
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 7 MB

Page 141

different technicalities of Bharata-Natyam and Persian influence. Another famous Kalpa-sutra, now in the National Museum, New Delhi, painted at Mandu in the fifteenth century is noteworthy for its colour scheme. A third Kalpa-sutra with fine decorative border designs, painted at Jaunpur in U. P. in the fifteenth century, is now preserved in the Jaina Bhandara at Baroda (Vadodara). Ilustrations of Kalpa-sutra manuscripts were perhaps the most popular and widely patronised, as they depicted incidents from the lives of Tirthankaras. Manuscript illustrations of the Kalakacharya Kathas and the Uttaradhyayana sutra and the Samgrahani sutra (on cosmology) were very popular. During the mediaeval period, from about the fifteenth century onwards Rasa poems and Katha words provided large variety of subject matter for illustrations. Works like the Sri-Chanda Rasa, Salibhadra Cahupai, Dhanya-Salibhadra Rasa, Nala Damayanti Rasa, Sripala Rasa, Madana Mohana Rasa, and Manatunga-Manavati Rasa etc. are available with beautiful text illustrations. Amongst the Digambaras illustrations of the Yasodhra Charita, and of the lives of Jinas and others described in works like the Adipurana and Uttarapurana of Jinasena and Gunabhadra became very popular and have provided some exquisite examples of miniatures. Also remarkable are the palmleaf illustrations of the Dhavala and Jayadhavala manuscripts painted in the twelfth century in Karnataka.
Wooden book-covers of palm-leaf manuscripts in the Svetambara Jaina collections at Jesalmer and Ahmedabad are painted with scenes depicting events from different births of Tirthankaras like Mahavira, Parsvanatha, Neminatha or Santinatha. Some book covers show scenes of Bharata-Bahubali fight etc., or the debate between Digambara and Svetambara monks, or worship of the Jina, or the 24 different Mothers of Tirthankaras or the figures of different Salakapurusas (Great Men) of Jaina mythology. Some book-covers have geometrical or floral decorations with meandering creepers having different animals in different circles, A few of the book covers discovered so far date from the eleventh and twelfth centuries A. D. while some date from the fourteenth century.
The Jainas also patronised the art of wood-carving. Beautifully and richly carved temple mandapas, miniature shrines etc. have been discovered and published.
Paintings on paper scrolls called Vijnaptipatras and Patas on paper and canvass, of both Tantric and non-tantric nature, known from several Jaina collections, and some late wall-paintings representing or mapping different shrines in tirthas (places of pilgrimage) like Satrunjaya and Girnar, still existing and being set up in Jaina temples, offer interesting studies.
4
.
48 Haribhakti Society J. P. Narain Road Vadodara-390015