Jain Journal 1978 10

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

Page 3

BOOK REVIEW
MORE DOCUMENTS OF JAINA PAINTINGS AND GUJARATI PAINTINGS OF SIXTEENTH AND LATER CENTURIES by DR. UMAKANT P. SHAH, L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad 1976, Pages 28,Price Rupees 76.00. With Plates.
In the general perspective of Indian art along its flowering glade of expressions by lines and pigments one has no doubt to pause before the discipline and linear appeal of Jaina and Gujarati paintings of bygone era. Actually, to understand the expressions and style of Indian paintings of the past centuries the impact of such creations still remains to be further evaluated right from the context. A savant on Jaina history and culture Dr. Umakant P. Shah has made another contribution to his field of research by working on an invaluable reportery of Jaina paintings and their comparable illuminations from Gujarat. The writer has conveyed us the imperishable glory of Western Indian art as also the taste and vision of artists who have devised the formality of depicting profiles characterised by the extended further eye and the familiar pointed nose. Dr. Shah has traced such style though still seemingly insipient as an established discipline in a copper plate of Paramara Vakpatiraja dated 974 A.D., in one of the Banswara copper plates of Bhojadeva dated 1019-1020 A.D. and in a charter of Paramara Siyaka dated 969 A.D. Besides these, a number of wooden book covers (Pattikas) embellished with paintings from Jesalmer and similar workmanship and artistry as noticed in the collection of Muni Punyavijayji will also appear extremely interesting. According to Dr. Shah :
"From a study of all these paintings, it is now safer to conclude that a few examples of the tenth and eleventh century paintings in Western