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PAINTINGS AND WOOD-CARVINGS
[PART VII
prior to his renunciation. In spite of the tradition, no wood-carvings in the round depicting Tirthankaras have been found so far. At what time the transformation from wood to stone or bronze took place it is difficult to say. But those who are conversant with the ritual of Tirthankara worship will immediately understand the reason for abandoning the wood-sculptures. The daily washing of images by water and milk, the application of sandal-paste, etc., do not allow the use of wooden sculptures for worship. However, subsidiary and allied carvings as part of architecture have a better continuity in wood and quite a few of these can be seen in different museums and private collections.
Most of such sculptures which once formed part of the architecture of Jaina mandapas, home-shrines and temples belong to the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, earlier examples having disappeared long ago because of the perishable nature of the material. All such examples share the following. common features: (i) they are smaller in size when compared to their counterparts in stone; (ii) once detached from the structure, most of these look as if carved separately and independently; (iii) they are carved in such a way that one side, which was earlier attached to the architectural piece, is not finished properly; (iv) usually they are coloured; and (v) they come from one or the other parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, thus inheriting the characteristic features of that region. The dry climate of the region helped in preserving these sculptures. To illustrate these points we will discuss here some of the Jaina wooden sculptures.
Almost all the Jaina mandapas have several beautifully-carved female figures, either playing on various musical instruments (fig. XXVI) or in various dance-poses (plate 298). Charming figures putting on anklets (payal) is yet another motif seen among these nymphs (fig. XXVII). Sometimes a miniature figure is seen imitating a bigger figure at its footsteps (plate 299A) or a mother is seen carrying her child in the typical Indian way (plate 299B). As already stated, almost all these examples were once coloured, some still retaining traces of paint. Although they were meant to be seen as part of mandapas (these come from more than one mandapa), they have been carved in round. However, their back lacks the finish of the front.
1 U.P. Shah, Studies in Jaina Art, Banaras, 1955, pp. 4 and 5. The Buddhists too have a similar tradition, A.K. Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, New York, 1965, p. 43. (See above, pp. 4, 86.-Editor.]
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