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He did these tracings and made copies during 1940-50. But at that time he never seemed to realize that eventually he would grow into an ardent student, a devoted admirer and a great connoisseur of the Jain art in the temples of South Gujarat. He got a fellowship from the Government of India for studying art in Banaras in 1958. There he came in close contact with great scholars of Indian art Shri Raikrishnadasji and Shri Vasudevsharan Agrawal. Shri Raikrishnadasji took Vasudeo Smart to Bharat Kala Bhavan founded by him. In this museum of art Shri Vasudeo Smart got an opportunity to look closely at the rich collection paintings and sculptures of India and other countries. He lived in Banaras for nearly 35 years. During this long period, he had the advantage of attending and participating in a number of seminars, talks, work-shops and exhibitions origanized at or by the University and Bharat Kala Bhavan. Things turned out for him in such away that he came to be in a very close contact of the various aspects and schools of Indian art. And thus his creativity came to find his very own idiom of expression. He was never carried away by the modern and modernist movements in arts. He was always happily at home with the age-old traditions of Indian art and aimed at expressing what was essentially and characteristically Indian in these traditions.
After having retired form Banaras University in 1985, he came back to Surat. Soon he lost his dear wife Smt. Pramila Smart. It took nearly three to four years for him to come out of this shock. But in 1990, he took out the copies and tracings he had made at the temple of Shri Chintamani Parshwanath, Ajanta, Sittannavasal caves, Orchha Datia and other places. He would look at them, be pleased with his work, tell me about the difficulties he had faced and the obstacles he had to overcome and at the same time would explain to me at length this or that esthetic aspect of his work. Somewhere during this period he was appointed as an honourary member of the West Zone Cultural Centre of the Government of India. He also got a fellowship for the study of and research in the Jain paintings. The artist and the reserch scholar in him woke up from deep slumber and he soon became his original self again. He started visiting Jain temples in South Gujarat, and making extensive notes, sketches and documentations.
He worte a number articles on the basis of the notes and copies he had made in the course of his visits to the temples, cave temples and Jain temples in the various parts of
14 : Jain Kashthapat Chitra
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