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Three Polychrome Wood-Carvings
of Jain Derasara
Madhav Gandhi
The Jain wood-carving has a long and fascinating history. Though little of this survives to-day, it perhaps surpasses other types of India's wood-carvings in its diversity of shape and form. Although no wooden sculpture earlier than the 16th century is known, some fine examples of later period exist even to-day.
In Western India especially in Rajasthan and Gujarat the Jains created temples in wood and stone. Earlier wooden temples have perished but temples in stone continued to stand with glory to this day.1 In Gujarat finest examples of Jain Wood-carvings are found in Jain houseshrines (gharderāsars) and on the facades of the private buildings. Much of it is of religious nature and delineates the deities of the Jain pantheon and the legends and stories relating to the life of Jain Tirthankaras. The friezes which form the main structure of house-shrine depict figures of Tirthankaras, men and women, sometimes with children, animals, musicians and dancers, chariots and carts and a variety of other decorations,
The Department of Museums, Gujarat State, acquired in 1972 some odd pieces of carved wood-shrine. After a careful study of all the pieces, it was found that the majority of them belong to a dome of a congragation ball (sabha-mandapa) of a deräsar. But three pieces, though of sabhā-mandapa turned out to be of a different lot. They are the subject of this paper.
All the three pieces are the friezes rectangular in shape. They belong to lower part of balcony balustraded (kakşasana), overlooking
| Trivedi, R. K., Wood Carving of Gujarat, Census of India, 1961, Vol. V, Pt. VII-A
(2), Delhi, 1965 (vii). 2 Ibid., p. 39.
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