Historical Facts About Jainism

Author(s): Lala Lajpatrai
Publisher: Jain Associations of India Mumbai

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cause the Jains have historical connection with Marwad'' and Rajputana. The inscription found near a temple in Osia 57 shows that the Jains inhabited Rajputana in great numbers, so early as 84 Virasamvat, i,e. 542 B. C.' In the relics in Gujarat what is to be wondered is how the Jain Art saved the Hindu Art from being marred by the heterogenous Mahomedan Art. It is well-known that had it not been for the existence of Jaip Art and sculpture as living model, the Hindu Art would have succumbed to the Mahomedan Art. As it is the Hindus are able to pride themselves in possession of a National Art in Gujarat. In the South in the middle ages, and in the North in the ancient times, the Jain Art exercised the same influence and the same can be verified by studying the relics of those times. Dr. Ananda K. Coomarswami in his notes on Jain Art in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry Vol. XVI July, 1914 says :--56
“The paintings are not only very important for the student of Jain iconography and archaeology, and as illustrating costume, manners and actions but are of equal or greater interest as being the oldest known Indian paintings on paper, and representing an almost hitherto unknown school of Indian Art, based like Rajput paintings on the old traditions, but carrying us back at least a century and half further than the oldest available examples of Rajput pictures. It is indeed probable that when the Jain
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