Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 859

360 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
red, green, white, black, carmine, yellow and indigo blue. However the predominant colour used is gold which is not of a shining variety as in the later Kalpa-sūtras but well burnished and dull which gives a metallic impression to the figures. If the date of the manuscript is correct, it also contradicts the suggestion that in early manuscripts gold was very sparingly used. It is also significant to note that ultramarine is nowhere seen. The draughtmanship is pleasing. Though the exaggeration in body contour is continued yet a certain amount of reticence is seen. The scene is invariably laid in a conventional wooden arched pavilion. The inside decoration consists of room hangings and some furniture like a cauki and modha.
There is no suggestion of landscape except strips of blue edged with gold representing the cloud. It is also interesting to note the emergence of an Indo-Muslim type in Kalaka-katha illustration by 1346 A.D. at least. That shows that by the middle of the fourteenth century at least the Indian and Persian elements had been synthesised. It is also interesting to note that in the scenes representing the Jaina ācārya with his pupils the composition is directly copied from the earlier painted wooden panels. The acārya is shown seated on the left side and the laymen are arranged in two groups facing each other.
It has been known from two illustrated manuscripts at least that Mandu in the fifteenth century was an important centre of art.
The earliest Mandu Manuscript is dated in 1439 A. D. It has proved that Mandu though actually influenced by Western Indian traditions, was not a mere copyist of the School of Patan. The illustrations show that in the colour scheme, draughtsmanship and composition the painters of Mandu had evolved their own conventions. The draughtsmanship is of a very superior quality. The colours are enamellike in nature and the landscape is mostly confined to variegated clouds treated dramatically. Fortunately this limited material on the School of Mandu is further augmented by a recent discovery in the collection of Muni Sri Punyavijayaji of a copy of the Kālakācārya-kathā whose illustrations (Figs. 4-5) could be very favourably compared with the Mandu manuscript of the Kalpa-sūtra dated 1439 A.D. Again, in the picture showing the meeting of Kalakácārya and Indra in the garb of a Brāhmana the features of the Mandu school are well represented. The background is deep red, the carnation of the figures is yellow, the draughtsmanship is very careful and the details of furniture are rendered carefully. The variegated hanging clouds complete the picture.