________________
JANURAY, 1993
161
impact on the masses. It is also customary for the devotees to sit for a while in the temple when one comes for darśana. This is the time when their eyes wander around and see and enjoy the beautiful carvings and learn about the incidents from the life of Tirthankaras. It is an interesting combination of a art and utility. One of the panels depicts devotees paying homage to Pārsvanātha which suggests that all the three described earlier belonged to Pārsvanātha derāsara which was originally in wood.
The wood carvings in Jain derāsaras are generally found painted in multicolours. These three friezes were also once painted as can be seen from the traces of paint layers still sticking to the carvings of the panels. A fipe layer of cunam is applied on the panels as a base in order to get desired effect of colours which are to be applied afterwards. It also works as uniform layer to cover roughness and any flaws in the wood. As a general background Indian red colour is used. The colours we generally come across in such carvings, especially in the narrative relief friezes are dark blue, dark green, vermilion-red and yellow-ocher, which are mainly used for costumes of the figures.? In the panels discussed above, there are traces of colours at some places but most of the colours are either faded or disappeared along with the base layer of cunam leaving evidence of their existence in the deep undercuttings of the relief work in these friezes.
The provenance of our pieces is very difficult to ascertain in absence of definite reliable information from the dealer. However, the treatment of costumes, the type of bullock cart, depiction of architecture type etc, suggest the place of manufacture of these carvings as Saurashtra and probably around Sihor in Bhavnagar District. The whole treatment appears to be different from that of Wadi Parśvanātha derăsara from Patan on the one hand and Jain man tapa of the Baroda Museum on the other. Our pieces are later in origin than the Wădi Parsvanatha derāsara (A. D. 1624-26) and some early pieces of the Baroda Museum mandapa (Late 16th century A. D.). In this case the carvings are more simple, near and devoid of any heavy ornamentation. The richness of the earlier carvings appears to have disappeared and simplicity introduced. We dot not find any more those intricate carvings of Wādi Pårsvanātha deräsara seen in fiaest rendering of creeper-flower designs
1 Agrawal, O. P., Tandon, B. N. and Bist, A. S., 'A study of Four Polychrome
Sculptures', Conservation of Cultural Property in India, Proceedings of the IV
Seminar, New Delhi, 1969. 8 Goetz. H.A Monument of Old Gujarat Wood Sculptures', Bulletin of the Baroda
Museum and Picture Gallery, Vol. VI, Pt. I-II, Baroda, 1950.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
