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Preface
Before 1953 when I was awarded Ph.D. degree on my thesis on Elements of Jaina Iconography (North India). I had published, from 1940 onwards, some important chapters on Iconography of the Jaina Goddess Ambika, on the Jaina Goddess Sarasvati, on the Sixteen Jaina Mahāvidyās, on Jivantasvami, on Kaparddi and Brahmaśānti Yaksas, Kșetrapāla, on Supernatural Beings in the Jaina Tantras, on the History of Tantra in Early Jaina Literature, on the Age of Differentiation of Digambara and Svetāmbara images and the earliest known Svetāmbara bronzes, Vardhamāna-Vidya-Pata, etc. In 1954 I gave lectures on Jaina Art in the Banaras Hindu University under the auspices of the Jaina Cultural Research Society when the late Dr. V.S. Agrawala presided. The lectures, published as Studies in Jaina Art, mainly dealt with Symbol Worship in Jainism. Since then several articles on Jaina iconography, art, and culture have been published by me, besides three books on Jaina paintings-New Documents of Jaina Paintings (jointly with Dr. Moti Chandra), More Documents of Jaina Paintings and Gujarati Paintings of the sixteenth and later centuries, and Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras. A Brief Survey of Jaina Bronzes with many illustrations was published in Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture.
Every time I tried to revise my thesis for publication I was required to postpone it and undertake works on Jaina paintings mentioned above, as well as the book on Art of the Akota Bronzes or the editing of the rare Jaina work on music entitled Sangitopanişad-Säroddhara and the work of Critical Edition of the Rāmāyana of Valmiki and so on.
The accidental discovery of the Akota Hoard of Jaina Bronzes was a landmark in the study of Jaina Iconography and Western Indian Sculpture. I was fortunate in retrieving the hoard dispersed amongst people in Baroda. The Akota Bronzes, discovered in 1951-52, helped me in getting solutions of problems like the Introduction of Sašanadevatās in Jainism, Age of Differentiation of Svetambara and Digambara Tirthankara-images, Introduction of cognizances on Tirthankara images, identification of Jivantasvämi images etc., and finalising the thesis with some satisfaction.
My work does not aim at exhausting everything in Jaina iconography. The thesis was more or less a first systematic attempt at putting the study of Jaina iconography on scientific basis. In the thesis, I had concentrated only on North Indian Jaina images, though I tried to study most of the Svetāmbara and Digambara literary sources in Prakrt, Sanskrt, Apabhramśa and Gujarati. For the first time I could bring to light and refer to tantric Jaina texts (published as well as a majority in manuscript form). For this study good deal of material also exists in Kannada and Tamil literatures. Prof. S. Settar of Dharwar is doing good work in Karnataka, has brought to light several sources, especially of Kannada Purānas, and has published a valuable work on Sravana Belagola. Dr. Sarayu Doshi brought to light several rare Digambara Jaina paintings and, in Marg, a special issue on Gommateśvara.
Before I started my studies around 1938, some important works and articles on Jaina art and iconography were published:
A. Cunningham in his Archaeological Survey Reports published valuable information about Jaina sites and noticed sculptures, inscriptions etc. from several sites like Mathura, Khajuraho, Gwalior, etc. G. Buhler published two articles on Jaina inscriptions from Mathura and a paper on Jaina sculptures from Mathura, in Ep. Indica, between 1892-94 A.D. His discussion on Naigameşin from Jaina and Medical
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