Jain Journal 1972 04

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

Page 77

216
during the period when the Jainas of Mathura carefully kept record of their donations". In fact, as J. Fleet observed, "The prejudice that all stūpas and stone railings must necessarily be Buddhist, has probably prevented the recognition of Jaina structure as such, and up to the present, only two undoubtedly Jaina stūpas have been recorded." Vincent Smith also says, "In some cases, monuments which are really Jaina have been erroneously described as Buddhist."
JAIN JOURNAL
The stupa seems to have been a feature of the early North Indian Jaina architecture. Hence when during the post-Christ centuries Jainism went on declining in the north, at the same time gaining greater and greater strength in the south and the Deccan, the niṣadya of Karnataka type seems to have replaced the stupa as a funeral monument. These nişadyas or chatris are often found bearing foot-prints of the saints in whose honour they were erected. Still the practice of erecting stūpas did not altogether cease as we find evidence of their erection at Mathura, Hastinapura, etc., even in mediaeval times.
The Jainas did not lag behind in the realm of painting either, Traces of old paintings are still to be seen on the ceilings of Jaina caves at Ellora. There are also some at Kancipura and Tirumalai in the south. Dubreuil has drawn attention to others at Sittannavasala near Tanjore, assigned to the 7th century A.D. These paintings are in rock-cut temple and are akin in style to Ajanta. More interesting are those of Tirumalai (N. Arcot). Smith says, "the Jaina holy place at Tirumalai is remarkable as possessing the remains of a set of wall and ceiling paintings ascribed, on the evidence of inscriptions, to the 11th century A.D..". Traces exist of still older paintings covered up by the existing works. Art of mural painting continued with the Jainas even in later times and on the walls of the Matha at Belgola there are several examples of how the chief tenets of their religion were sought to be inculcated by means of this art. Symbolic representations of the religious tenets, scenes from Jaina Puranas and even secular subjects like a South Indian king's court, and so on, were handled by the Jaina artists. Miniature painting, the art of illustrating manuscripts with pictures, even writting whole stories in pictures, and calligraphy, in which also the Jainas attained a high degree of excellence, belong to later times.
Another form of Jaina art developed in this period is that of inscribing on rock or copperplates, some of which are of no less artistic interest than they are of historical value. The Kudlur plates of Narasimha Ganga, for example, are literature, art and history rolled in one. Practicularly noteworthy in it is the seal which is beautifully