Kevalaodhi Buddhist And Jaina History Of Deccan Vol 2

Author(s): Aloka Parasher Sen, B Subrahmanyam, E Siva Nagi Reddy
Publisher: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan

Page 144

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Kevala-Bodhi---Buddhist and Jaina History of the Deccan
9. Anantavrata-Katha; 10. Sugandha-Dasami-Katha; 11. Ādityavar-Katha, and
12. Jiwandhara-Katha. The paintings in these manuscripts are pedestrian in artistic quality. They are executed in a predominantly popular Rajasthani style. Their work is qualitatively similar to a large number of illustrated manuscripts executed during the 17th-19th century AD in Rajasthan and Central India for the middleclass patrons. Like in Rajasthan and elsewhere, the Jaina patrons of the north Deccan commissioned them not for deriving aesthetic pleasure, but for propagating and enlightening themselves and other readers with stories popular in their community. On the evidence of stylistic parallels with the Chandana Maliyagiri Katha manuscript, the above four manuscripts confirm their Deccani origin by the fact that the text is written in old Marathi and this is supported also by the details of dress.
In our search for reasons why the Deccani painters did not produce works with Jaina themes, we have to first understand the origin, themes, patrons and the extent of the style, generally known as the 'Western Indian School', which could have inspired the painters and patrons in the Deccan. Works in this style, chiefly Jaina manuscripts, started being produced in Gujarat and southern Rajasthan from about 1060 AD. They were commissioned by the Jaina kings of the Chalukya dynasty (10th to 13th century AD), and wealthy Jaina merchants and were gifted as an act of piety to a Jaina monk or to a Jaina monastic library or were worshipped at home. Hundred of copies of the Kalpasūtra and Kalakacharya Katha" were distributed by the wealthy traders and middleclass patrons to assist in propagating the virtues of the Jaina faith and thus, Jaina religious merits.
In its early phase, Jaina manuscript paintings were executed on palm-leaf, but from the mid-13th century AD paper, which sometime before was introduced from Persia, began to be used. One of the notable features of the style is the protrusion into the space of the farther eye of the human face even when seen in profile. Their wiry drawing, angular features and simplified color schemes are the other characteristic features. While the cinnabar red of the background, and the orpiment yellow, used for the body color, are found in the early works (up to about 1475 AD), the later works are notable for the use of ultramarine blue, derived from lapis lazuli, and a crimson color derived from lac. At first, gold was employed in a restricted manner, but later on the very prosperous Jainas encouraged profuse use of gold and other precious pigments for creating opulent looking manuscripts.
Luckily, wherever there were prosperous Jainas, new centers emerged for the production of Jaina manuscripts. Though broadly adhering to the iconographical clichês evolved earlier in Gujarat, the paintings of these new centers are full of liveliness, refinement and display remarkable creative pictorial qualities. Among this very rare group of manuscripts that survive from centers outside western India are: the AD 1439 Kalpasūtra from Mandu (in Central India), in National Museum, New Delhi; and another, of about the same date, in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad;" an undated Kalakacharya Katha, and stray folios from a Kalpasūtra manuscript in The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, all of them are from Mandu and of about the same date. Aside from these, there are manuscripts of the Kalpasūtra produced at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, one of them dated AD 1465," and the other, of about the same date, is published by Pratapaditya Pal. These manuscripts prove that they are works of first-rate artists and calligraphers and that they were made for wealthy patrons.