Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

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

Page 867

368 SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
is treated in a basket pattern, the hills consist of thick zig-zag sectors, painted white, black, blue and carmine.
However while the Matar-Manuscript shows how painting in Gujarat was reacting to the new conditions, a painting from another copy of the Saṁgrahani-sütra dated in 1587 A. D., painted at Cambay (fig. 20), shows that conservatism was still able to preserve its hold. The women in this painting are directly descended from the earlier prototypes with yellow carnation wearing the typically Indian costume with pompoms attached to the ornaments, the room where they sit has a red background and decorative hangings. Above all the angularity of the draughtsmanship shows the strangle-hold of the tradition.
That the tradition was not different in the painting of the Samgrahani-sutra is evident from illustrations of a Samgrahani-sūtra dated 1650 A. D. and painted at Navharnagar identified with Navghar in Bikaner State. Here the paintings verge on the folk style. The elaborateness and careful finish of the Matar manuscript is no longer there. In the hill scenes depicted in this manuscript only the primary colours are used and even the background has been eliminated.
There is another manuscript of Samgrahani (undated) in which the Mughal influence, so far as figures are concerned, is very apparent. The composition however is again confined to single figures appearing in compartments with red background. The water is represented by a basket pattern and the hill by a pile of meandering lines shaded with white and pink (Fig. 32). Its provenance may be Gujarat. Such manuscripts of the Samgrahani-sütra show that there was a good demand for them, as the scenes of gods and goddesses, hells and punishment, charts of dvipas etc. were of great popular interest.
While the illustrated manuscripts of the Samgrahani-sutra, following the Matar Samgrahani in the treatment of themes, became very popular, the illustrated manuscripts of the Uttaradhyayana in the new style are not so common. A manuscript of Uttaradhyayana-sūtra from Anjar in Kaccha is therefore of special interest (Figs. 21-23). A significant point about the manuscript is that almost all the figures, human as well as animal, are painted in burnished gold. The background is usually ultramarine relieved by patches of red, against which the figure drawing is done. The ultramarine ground is covered with
20 Use of Pompons started earlier though it was occasional.