ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 01

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 281

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manuscript, the Jains had already started illustrating several kathās (stories, legends, myths). The illustrated versions of Kalpasūtra and the Kālakācārya-Kathā were executed for lay votaries of the Svetambara sect in areas distinct from Gujarat and Rajasthan.
In 15th century the intrinsic beauty of the Jain miniatures begins to fade. There is a perceptible decline in execution - the line loses its verve, the rendering becomes markedly angular and the protruding farther eye becomes very pronounced. The miniatures strike as being reduced to formulae, repeated over and over again with little variation. The polychromatic palette is now narrowed down to two basic colours red and gold. For gold the gold-leaf was used instead of gold paint. The painter began to work covering the entire area of miniature with a thin sheet of golden-leaf, then proceeded to outline the human figures and other motifs in black ink. After the completion of drawing the ground area is painted in red and the figures and the motifs were treated as negative spaces in the compositions. The whole painting was enlivened with a few accently in other colours. Occasionally, the folios of the manuscript were adorned with decorative designs such as floral and geometrical motifs in the margins and the panels above and below the text.
Around the middle of the 15th century, blue-ultramarine as well as lapis-lazuli superseded red as the favoured colour in Jain miniatures. The folios of the manuscripts were embellished with intricate scrollwork. In 15th century there was progressively increasing activity to enrich the manuscripts with border decorations. The border decorations become more complex, depicting flowering creepers, birds and animals, geometrical designs and other interesting subjects like dancers, musicians, wrestlers, foreign soldiers and animal trainers etc. Most of these scenes may be seen in the manuscript of the Devāsāno Pãòo Kalpasūtra and Kalakācārya-Katha. In the closing years of the 15th century, the art of Jains began to take new directions. The farther eye had gradually lost its organic hold and it had become merely a decorative feature. The style of painting in Western India deteriorating in terms of line and compositional values and became dull and fatigued, although it maintain blue and gold palette.
Between the periods of A.D. 1350 to 1550, Indian miniature painting also found articulation in another pictorial mode - the Caurapañcāśikā style that presents a sharp contrast to the exoteric and iconographic preoccupations that characterise the style of Jain painting. The Jain tradition employed both the style of Jain painting as well as the Caurpañcasikā style for illustrating its religious texts (The Caurpañcäsikä, containing fifty verses, is a Sanskrit lyric
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STUDY NOTES version 5.0