Jain Journal 1970 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 12

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JAIN JOURNAL
are two from a manuscript of the Kalpa Sūtra and a version of the Kālakācāryakatha in the Sanghavike-Padaka Bhandar at Patan, dated Vikrama Samvat 1335 (A.D. 1278); two from a manuscript of the Kalpa Sutra and a version of the Kalakācāryakatha in the Sanghaka Bhandar at Patan dated Samvat 1336 (A.D. 1279)17. Many other palm-leaf miniaturs exist in manuscripts both at Cambay and Patan, and probably in other libraries which I have not seen, as those at Jaisalmir. Just recently a number of miniatures have been published in colour from a palm-leaf manuscript of the Kalpa Sūtra, illustrating traditional scenes heretofore known only in the paper manuscripts18.
An examination of the miniatures of this period will show that the subjects of the paintings are as follows: Jinas (that is, Tirthankaras, “Saviors”), goddesses, gods, monks, patrons (male and female) of the manuscripts, a king, symbols. This is a limited list of subjects. So, too, the attitude or poses of these subjects are limited, being only three. One shows with bilateral symmetry a cross-legged figure with face directed squarely to the front, and is confined to representations of the Tirthankaras ; a second is a standing pose with face turned to something less than full profile and usually with ankle and hip joints bent ; the third is an easy seated pose with the face again turned to something less than full profile. The second and third poses are used with all subjects except Tirthankaras. The full front view used with Tirthankaras is the one possible view of a Tirthankara image as it sits at the rear of a cell in a modern Svetambara temple (hence my inability to get a photograph to show the effect of the protruding glass eyes mentioned above). Bodies have broad shoulders and narrow waists, as in sculpture from early times in India. With both men and women the breasts are full ; in the female both breasts are drawn in; in the male only the farther. The poses of the torso are reminiscent of the bent figures of sculpture and point to a tradition anterior to our earliest preserved specimens, during which these conventionalized types were adopted and adapted to painting. Similarly, the dress, ornamentation, marks on the Jinas, the attributes of attendant figures, and the very compositions (as, for example, the two elephants pouring water over a Jina) are of ancient Indian lineage
Although the types in these paintings are of great plastic antiquity and constitute the culmination of a long development, the painting itself is "primitive". It is flat, lacks depth, and has a narrowly restricted palette, using only a brick-red, close to vermilion, yellow, blue, white,
17 Shah, pls. 1, 2, 5, 6, 14. 18 See references in footnotes 15, 17.