Jain Journal 1970 04

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

Page 13

APRIL, 1970
and rarely a green. The reproduction in Shah's work cited above indicate that gold is used. The art is at a far remove from that of Ajanta or Bagh, as though it were a folk art converted to the purposes of religion, on which point Mr. Ghose writes pertinently (loc. cit). The great merit of the art is the vigor of its drawing, the nervous force of its line, its high decorative quality.
207
The background in these early miniatures is usually a brick-red, close to vermilion. This characteristic persists throughout the entire history of the art, although in the paper period two kinds of red are employed for the background in different manuscripts, the old brick-red or vermilion and a red containing more purple, and the red is often displaced in whole or in part by blue.
In some of the paintings the drapery, especially that of the female figures, looks like a representation of Gujarat patola work, a patterned silk textile. In the paintings executed in Gujarat the female figures wear closed bodices-it takes a careful examination to determine this in the case of the Cambay miniatures-; in those from Mewar they wear bodices open in the front19. Here possibly are depicted local peculiarities of costume. There are also variations in the treatment of the monks' drapery. Hemacandra has the right shoulder bare; on the other hand, the monks in the Patan manuscript of 1278 A.D. are covered to the neck, and the monk in the Patan manuscript of 1287 A.D. seems to have the right shoulder bare but the arm covered. There seems to be convention that one figure should not be placed before another (cf. in Journ. Roy. Asiatic Soc., 1925, p. 188), and this is observed in both the palm-leaf and paper periods, except as an end of drapery or a foot of one figure comes before some part of another figure.
In the margin of the palm leaf opposite the panels there sometimes appear thumb-nail sketches of the compositions done with black ink, and occasionally the titles appear beside the completed paintings.
The miniatures of the palm-leaf period are executed with wider stroke, less complicated composition, and fewer details than are those of the paper period. The brushes used seem to have been heavier than some of those employed later, making them better suited to the surface on which the earlier paintings appear; for the palm leaf is less adapted to fine and delicate workmanship than is paper.
19 Coomaraswamy (4).