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Jain Architecture, Sculpture and Painting
Indian art has an essential unity that goes into the making of its very core and that consequently characterizes all its expressions and manifestations throughout centuries. At its best it becomes an expression of all that is noble in human life and the highest aspirations of human beings. The rulers in India as elsewhere have always been great patrons of arts. Naturally, the faith of the ruling classes would colour and shape the kind and style of art that flourishes under them and hence the various schools of Indian art such as Hindu art, Jain art, Buddhist art, Rajput art, Mogul art and so on.
Some of the best examples of Jain architecture, sculpture and painting can be found in the places of pilgrimage for the Jains. Ajanta is at the highest peak of the Buddhist art, architecture and sculpture. But by the end of the seventh century it was definitely at a very low ebb. We find a few frescoes in the major temples of Kailashnath, Lankeshwar, Indrasabha and Ganeshlen. But these wall paintaings are stray ones and in extremely damaged condition. In all probability they belong to the later half of the eighth century. The human figures with their sharp and pointed faces drawn as if seen from the threefourth angle, that is drawn in such a way that one of the two long eyes seems projecting forward, their sharp noses, their stiffness of postures and the ornaments that adorn the bodies of the human figures are decidedly different from those we find in Ajanta figures. These paintings have direct links with those Jain paintings we find in the centuries that followed. Some of the historians label this Jain art as the Apabhransh School or the Gujarat School of painting.
Jain Kashthapai Chitra : 21
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