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Beautiful paintings and carvings in woods are preserved even today in some of the Jain temples in the major cities and small towns of Gujarat such as Ahmedabad, Patan, Surat, Radhanpur, Khambhat and so on. Jain architecture in Gujarat is noted for beautiful paintings and/or carvings on walls, pillars, doors and the artistically structured arches or torans. Special mention has to be made of the beautiful pat paintings found in these temples. Pat Paintings
We have many references to the paintings on cloth in ancient Sanskrit literature. These pat paintings are religious and ritualstic in character and are associated with this or that sect of a major religion. For example, a Buddhist text Sanjuttanikay, has a reference to Chitra Patikas (paintings on long rolls of cloth) or Dushyapata that is a length of cloth which is polished. Thus, in simple language, Pat Chitra is a painting on a length of cloth. Pat paintings have to pass through four stages of preparation, viz. Dhaut - washed, Ghatit-rubbed and polished, Lanchhit-stretched and Rangit - dyed.
A long and narrow piece of pat was hanged on a bamboo for expounding some moral principle or a text to masses e.g. Sansarchakra pat or a pat painting on the cycle of life and death or cycle of wordly affairs, Pap punya pat - pat painting of sin and merit, pat painting on heaven and hell and so on.
We find references to pat paintings in ancient literature but no pat painting belonging to ancient period. This is obviously because cloth is perishable. It does not last for centuries. Or perhaps they have been lost to us because of the inadvertance of our people or because foreign invaders have destroyed them long ago. In his Jain Miniature Painting From Western India, Dr. Motichandra refers to the three pat paintings that belong to the fourteenth century. We have a number of pat painings preserved in Jain temples and in the art collections of institutions or individuals. But none of them is older than these three. All of them belong to a period ranging from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The preparation of pat chitras
Traditionally, khadi or handwoven cotton cloth was used for the purpose. Firstly, a thick coating of the paste of rice flour was applied on the cloth so that all the fine holes in the cloth were sealed off. When it became completely dry, it was polished with the help of a stone muller. Thus it became extremely smooth and hence ready for the artist to work on. And the artist would begin his work first with sketching lines in red ochre, fill it with different colours and end it with decorating the whole painting with gold and silver.
Jain Kashthapat Chitra : 27
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