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WORSHIP
The Kalpasutra, attributed to one Bhadrabahu, is one of the main canonical texts of Jainism. Its date of textual recording is set at 513, when the meeting of the second Jaina Council was convened at Vallabhi, but a long oral transmission may well have been
established before this. The first section of the text relates to the lives of the 24 Tirthankaras (ford builders), with Mahavir, the founder of the religion, being the 24th. This is followed by biographical accounts of senior Jain monks and divines, with a final section entitled 'Paryusana' relating to the ordering of the monks during the rainy season.
This exquisite Wellcome Library manuscript comprises of 115 folios. Transcribed in Devanagari in black ink, nine lines to a page, it is in Prakrit with some marginal commentary in Sanskrit. It is dated in 1503, and contains 58 exquisitely executed miniatures with their original silk protective curtains still intact. Bordered by red margins and painted with gold and other pigments against a rich blue background, the miniatures have a jewel-like quality. The linear technique, the protruding eye and the figures shown in static postures are characteristic of Jain painting. However, this style is not exclusive to this type of painting and had been referred to as the 'Western Indian School'.
SACRED TEXTS: THE KALPASUTRA
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NIGAL ALLAN Many beautiful miniatures depict
episodes from the life of Mahavir. draws on the He was conceived by a Brahmin story of the birth woman, Devananda, who had of Lord Mahavir fourteen auspicious dreams.
These were interpreted by her husband, Rasabhadatta, who foretold that the child would acquire great knowledge. Sakendra, the king of Gods and wielder of the thunderbolt, saw the unborn Mahavir in Devananda's womb and came to pay his respects in the
Brahmin city of Kundagrama (Fig.1). For Personal & Private Use Only
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