Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

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

Page 872

NEW DOCUMENTS OF JAINA PAINTINGS : 373
central points of each story. But one must know the story fully before identifying the incidents. In some stories the painter has followed the text almost in a short hand manner combining one or two or even three incidents of a story without following any order. Ordinarily the paintings are divided into panels with monochrome background in which the colour patches are used, or the pictures are composed without any decision (Figs. 24-26).
The colours are enamel-like : red, lacquer red, deep blues, yellows, carmine, brown, etc. are used with a grand effect. The figures are generally short in stature but the features both of male and female are well rendered. The eyes are large and pointed and the nose is sharp (Coulur plate V, Fig. VIII).
There is nothing unusual in the costume which is of the early eighteenth century Rajasthani type except that the turbans are definitely of the Jodhpur type (figs. 25-26). Though in most of the paintings landscape hardly plays any part in some of these the painter has shown a real understanding of the landscape (Colour plate VI, Fig. IX). The trees with a very thick foliage show a pleasing realism. The water is treated in a naturalistic manner and the treatment of the hills in mass recalls later Mughal tradition. The animals are represented mostly in a realistic manner. Independent landscapes are rather rare in Rajasthani painting but in one folio at least landscape without human figures is represented. As a matter of fact it is marvellous that within a very restricted space the painter is able not only to give a convincing landscape without any human figures or even with human characters. Another distinguishing feature of the miniatures is that while most of the Rajasthani paintings are static the Upadeśamālā characters are animated with a spirit of action which is the keynote of the stories.
We have illustrated here two more manuscripts, one of HaribalaCaupãi (dated in V. S. 1744 = 1687 A. D.) (Fig. 35), painted in Dhar in Malwa and the other of Śri-Cand-rājāno-Rasa (dated in 1812 A. D.) painted in Poona (Fig. 40) as dated evidence of painting in the above regions. They also show the continuity of art traditions in these regions in the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries.