Jaina Monuments and Places First Class Importance

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

Page 57

JAINA PAINTINGS
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THE ARCHAIC STYLE.
How hieratic forms repeat themselves in Jaina art-history is illustrated not only in the miniatures of the fifteenth century but also, and in a inore remarkable degree, in the images of the Tirthankaras. “The excessive deference to ritual prescription.. is carried to such an extremity by the Jainas that images differing in age by a thousand years are almost indistinguishable in style. Thc uniformity which runs through the centuries extends all over India..". The archaic types of the early manuscripts persist in the Jaina brass and rock crystal images long after the filteenth century.
ITS DECORATIVE VALUE AND TECHNIQUE.
Early Jaina art is a serious and formal art. It is an art dislinguished by much clever craftsmanship but nevertheless it has an intrinsic charmı of its own apart from mere technical excellence. The drawing, though usually rather rigid and inelastic, is at times distinguished by grace and power of expression and the pure blues and whites in the shining gold and red are a delight. Technically the early Jaina miniatures are of the highest interest. They do not reproduce the technique of the Buddhist miniatures. Jaina art is to be credited with the use, if not invention, of a remarkable technique without precedent in Indian painting. The process of working of the painter appears to have been as follows :- In the space left on the leaf for the miniature liquid gold paint, or it may even be gold leaf, was first laid on so much of the space as would be occupied by the subject of the picture. The background was now formed by laying on a deep scarlet and the pigment was laid on the gold in such