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Lalit Kumar
This text also gives description of paintings in the palace built for Megha Kumar.32 It's walls were painted with eha-deer, bull, horse etc. and thousand of other paintings.
. Then there is a reference to wall paintings in the picture-gallery of the crown prince Malladinna. The story provides an important clues to the technique of mural painting. For instance, the wall space required to be painted was first divided into panels of different sizes (bhumibhāge).33 Then the ground was prepared (bhūmi sajjei).34 After this painters proceeded with their colours and brushes. Preparation of ground was an essential step for murals because it provided a smooth and permanent surface for drawing and colouring. The Visnudharmottara gives us detailed information on the elaborate processes involved in the preparation of the ground (bhittisaṁskāra).35
From Āyafyaka Cūrni we get a better understanding of the nature of the ground.36 It is mentioned in the story of Vimal and Prabhas who were called to make mural paintings in the harem of a king. One of them engaged himself in preparing splandid murals 'whereas the other was still occupied with the prepareaction of the ground on the facing wall, it caused great annoyance to the astonished king who saw one wall apparantly blank. But a pleasant surprise awaited him when the artist drew the curtain aside falling in between the walls. The mural got reflected on the mirror like blank surface of the wall, prepared, perhaps with this intention. We know that after the application of plaster (Vajralepa) on the wall, it was allowed to dry for sometime, after which the surface was burnished.37 But the amount of burnishing required in the preparation of the ground is very well indicated in this story.
There are some more references to wall painting. Silankācārya Caupanmahāpurișa-Cariya mentions the depiction of the life of Neminātha and Rajimati in a palace which Parsvanāth happened to see.38 The scenes influenced him so much that he decided to renounce the world. There is also a reference to some decorative motifs painted on the walls in the Rājaprasniya Sūtra.39
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