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history!! Isn't that nostalgic? It is like that one serene mind started wondering if in those days also kids played glance which edifies your soul to eternity.
Snakes and Ladders? I went and asked my father about it One of the Jain paintings cherishes very close to my and he told me with his fascinating smile "Yes my dear". heart and reinstates memories of my childhood. The He explained to me, it is called as "Gyaanbaaji Patta", i.e. reason why L.D. institute flashes in my memory is my game of Jain knowledge and studies, which can be father Dr.Dhanvant Shah, being very closely associated called as Jain Snakes and ladders. Besides just the fact it with Jain literature, often visited Ahemedabad and also is a game, its aesthetics were applauding and many times visited the institute. Whenever he visited charismatic too. The bright vibrant colors, the patterned L.D. institute, I would visit the museum of Jain gorgeous border, the flamboyant figurative layout was manuscripts and Paintings. I did not understand much just stunning. I was thrilled and amused. I wanted to
know more about it and so I made sure I saw "Gyaanbaaji Patta" again the next day as I wanted to figure out how did they play this game at that time. Next day I straight away went to gaze this painting. I looked at it for nearly one hour to figure out how to play this game, but it seemed very complicated. I gave up and finally went back home. I asked papa about it and he did explain to me something but it all faded into fumes. The only thing I understood was it was a game that taught Jain religion to the children of the ancient era. But couldn't really have understood how it was played. I gave up and the image with its story restored in the back of my reminiscences.
Today this article enthralled me again to refresh my memories. Just to summarize, this game of snakes and ladders called as "Gyanbaaji Patta", made on the cloth during early 14th century epitomizes a person's progress in life and is divided into 84 numerical squares. Each square contains writings in Devanagari language about rules of conduct stipulating good and bad results. The ladder moving upwards denotes virtuous behavior and leading the player to move up to a higher level.
Whereas, the snakes, signifies a downfall descending Gyanbaaji Patta
the player to a lower level. As per Jain cosmology, every
soul wonders around in four worlds "Gati" such as in my childhood besides the fact I was told that these
Hell (Narak), Flowers & Plants (Tiryanch), Human are the paintings and manuscripts of ancient time and
(Manushya ) and Divine beings (Dev). The 84 squares each painting reveals a unique story, message, and
represent 84 lacs types of beings within which the soul history. This fact was indeed fascinating at that time as
wonders in these four worlds. When the soul acclaims to how such ancient paintings were restored and
good karmas, he progresses upwards but when this soul preserved for the world to foresee them and visualize
performs bad karmas, it faces a downfall. The first block the ancient time of Tirthankar Bhagwaan and decade
numbered 1 is the "Nigod" from which the soul starts its after that. These paintings are called as Vastrapatas
journey and is an undeveloped stage. The blocks that (Paintings made on cloth and paper). Out of all the
illustrate Snake's mouth leading to downfall are the painting, one of them caught my fascination. It looked
Wrong beliefs (five Mithyatva), Killing living beings like modern days game "Snakes & Ladders". My curious
૮૮ | ઓગસ્ટ - ૨૦૧૮
જૈન ધર્મમાં ચિત્રકળા વૈવિધ્ય વિશેષાંક | પ્રબુદ્ધ જીવન
| SR No. | 526121 |
| Book Title | Prabuddha Jivan 2018 08 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Sejal Shah |
| Publisher | Mumbai Jain Yuvak Sangh |
| Publication Year | 2018 |
| Total Pages | 124 |
| Language | Gujarati |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Prabuddha Jivan, & India |
| File Size | 9 MB |