________________
dancing figures is filled with small human figures both male and female who are playing upon shehnai, dhol or manjira and with birds with sharp beaks flying here and there. Light yellow ochere and light brown colours are used while painting the dancing figures. The entire background is painted in muddy red. The whole painting is again framed in a squarish floral pattern parts of which intrude into the empty spaces on the canvas.
The conception and the execution of the composition of the painting is highly imaginative and creative. The size of each of the nine ceiling-pats is also unusually large. The depiction of the sun at the centre and the conglomeration of the human figures, winged divinities, celestial damsels, musicians and flying birds all moving around the centre in gracefully rhythmic movements give a cosmic dimension to the painting
Here a special mention has to be made regarding the significance of some of the dancing figures having four hands. On one hand the four-handed figures can be taken as divine figures. On the other hand the addition of two more hands are symbolic in the sense that they represent various stages in the dace movements of the dancing figures. Paintings on ceilings are a rarity in South Gujarat. But a painting of such a high order of excellence and done in a style incorporating the best elements of folk art is a rarity among rarities.
Y
The Design and the Structure of Nandishwar Dwip
The unique piece of composite art known as Nandishwar dwip in Shri Chandraprabhu Swami temple is one and the only one of its kind and not even a distant parallel corresponding to it can be found anywhere in India. Shri Vimalgnansuriji was the chief source of inspiration behind this marvellous work of art which was created under his constant and careful supervision. The chief artist who might have conceived and executed the project must have been a man of vision, a master craftsman and a consumate artist who was equally at home in the fields of architecture, sculpture and painting. The imagination of the artist keeps constantly gliding smoothly from the realm of two dimensional depictions into the relam of three dimensional forms and back again. The theme of the composite artefact is
Jain Kashthapat Chitra : 45
Jain Education Intemational
For Private & Personal use only
www.jainelibrary.org
