Bhagavana Mahavira and his Relevance in Modern Times

Author(s): Narendra Bhanavat, Prem Suman Jain, V P Bhatt
Publisher: Akhil Bharat Varshiya Sadhumargi Jain Sangh

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Mahāvira and His Relevance
making this modern context in which we have started viewing Jainminiatures.
Flatness & Delimitation :
Starting our reconnaissance again, let us take the flatness of the miniatures. It is a widely accepted fact now that the 'truth' of canvas lies in keeping it flat “Flatness and delimitation of it as Clement Greenburg would put it. To secure this fatness the cubists used visually suggestive extensions of the force of line and the flatness of colours. Jain-miniaturists brought it out with an easethe 'flatness' in colours, tones and in contour lines as shown by the cubists in modern times. Further, Jain miniatures are called the 'miniaturised murals of the ancient tradition' hence they have the quality of expressing the continuum of mural configurations. To have a further insight into this 'flatness and delimitation of the picture surface of Jain-miniatures (which brings them on par with the graphic subtleties and expressions in contemporary art), it is worth while to recall the latest trends in American Art. Today's great American painter Noland, expresses this flatness and infinite space with a few horizontal lines on a long horizontal canvas; $o does the Jain-miniatur st do! He divides his horizontal picture plane mostly with horizontal bends (a horizon is always suggested as a ground line of figures expressing other worldliness). And not only this our miniaturist would further enhance this 'infinite' sensitivity with the surface breaking with verticals.
Abstract Tendencies :
The expressive energy of modulations (so called 'nervousforce') in the lines and contours of Jain-miniatures can easily be analogized with the abstract-expressionistic tendencies of Modern art.
In colours the peculiar juxtaposition of blue and red colours (which are almost always placed together, in Jain-miniatures, with equal tone and intensity) is expressive of an optical illusion analogous to contemporary OP Art. Of such illusions the sociological import is the depersonalization which is unavoidable in order to arrive at new aesthetic truths'. Op Art appears to be a systematic attempt to take hold of the human organism through its visual sense and to
change first its somatic, and then its psychic, state”6. Adopting