Jaina Monuments and Places First Class Importance

Author(s): T N Ramchandran
Publisher: Veer Shasan Sangh Calcutta

Page 55

JAINA PAINTINGS
not to be totally left out of consideration. The specimens of book furniture afford examples of excellent craftsmanship. The embroidery of the book covers is vigourously designed and admirably and patiently exccuted.
TAINA MINIATURE PAINTING COMPARED WITH
BUDDHIST
Their Jainas) pictorial art appears to be weak and inept yet no long intervening period separates the later monuments of Jaina architecture and sculpture from the age of manuscripts. The miniature art is inferior in (eeling and power of expression --it lacks the humanness of the sculpture. Like the Jaina sculptor, the Jaina painter, too, played his role in the dcvclopment of Jainism for Jaina painting, unlike Mughal painting, was the expression of a faith. Its mission was primarily to illustrate the lives of the grcat Jaina teachers and heroes by means of colour and line.
THE PROVENANCE OF TAINA PAINTING.
The provenance of the Jaina illustrated manuscripts is Guzerat and Rajputana.
THE MINIATURES OF THE MANUSCRIPTS.
The most important Jaina manuscripts with illustrations are manuscripts of the Kalpasūtra and Kälakācārya Kathā, the latter being often found with the former. The earliest known illustrated manuscript is on palm-leaf and is dated 1237 A.D. Not