Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 03

Author(s): A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 23

MINIATURE PAINTINOS ses pairworthy. So also Jinasena I (circa 830) in bis Adth-punderea mentions
mane ale in a Jaina shrine, while Jarasittihanandin (circa seventh century) in his wanting the carita refers to a Jaina temple in which were displayed peppakas depicting the lives of tho Tirthankaras, famous Faina monks and Cakravartins (great kings). The last two references, it may be noted, pertain to south-Indian Baina, temples, and we may nocordingly conclude that the practice of painting patraka was widespread amongst the Jainas. Though the word patraka can mcan a wooden board as well as a propared cloth, it seems appropriate to give it the latter meaning and regard those early patas as the precursors of the numerous Jáina cloth pafas of later datet which are well-known to #cholars of Jaina painting "Those later pafas, in conjunction with the earlier references quoted above, could thus indicate a long unbroken hieratic tradition of producing such paintings on cloth.
But, interestingly enough, all early references, though they mention painting on the walls of shrines and pafas, are significantly silent, as far as we are aware, on the existence of manuscript-illustration being in vogue prior to the eleventh century.
ŚVETAMBARA MANUSCRIPT
BEGINNINGS OF PAINTED MANUSCRIPTS The earliest illustrated Jaina manuscript, which is on palm-leaf, contains two texts, viz. Ogha-niryukti and Data-valkalika-lika, both having colophons which mention the same donor, the same donee, who was a monk, and the same scribe. But the first colophon also has a date, viz. the Vikrama year 1117 (A.D. 1060). This manuscript has an illustration of Sri, a lively Kámadeva loosing an arrow and some really well-drawn elephants (plate 265A). The superior quality of the drawing need not surprise us once we appreciate the fact that the painting of paffas on cloth by skilful artists was prevalent long before the eleventh century. Of course the extremely-limited area for painting, circumscribed by the narrow format of the palm-leaves, may in the beginning have occasioned some difficulty to illustrators accustomed to paint larger figures on cloth.
But the question of immediate concern is how it happened that Jaina palm-leaf manuscripts, with their very limited format for painting, came to be illustrated only from the second half of the eleventh century. There can
* Moti Chandra op. cit, . 46.
* This manuscript is in a Jaina Bhandara at Jaisalmer. Satya Prakash first referred to it in Akru (Hindi journal) and later Shah thentioned it, ap. cit.