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CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF THE GRANTHA BHANDARAS 101
(1) There is a manuscript of Adipurana written by Kavi
Puspadanta in the 10th century. This manuscript was copied in the year 1404 A.D. On the 14th folio of this manuscript there is a painting of Marudevi, mother of Lord Risabhadeva, the first Jaina Tirthankar seeing sixteen dreams. The colour is still in good condition and it has been drawn on pure Indian style. The manuscript is in the Amer Sastra
Bhandar, Jaipur. (2) The other fully illustrated manuscript written on
paper is also Adipurana of Puspadant, an Apabhramsa poet of the 10th century. The manuscript is preserved in the Sastra Bhandar of Jaina Terapanthi temple of Jaipur. The most striking aspect of its composition is the enlarged pictorial area which extends horizontally in some cases to cover the entire length of the folio. The Persian convention of vertical penals was not adopted in these paintings. The background colour used in a bold lacquer red and the other colours being confined to white, black, yellow, jasmine and
green. Such a big illustrated and painted manuscript is not available any where. There are several paintings of the war and scenes of battle. The soldiers having swords in their hands are riding horses, elephants, chariots or marching on foot. They are wearing turbans on their heads and dupattas in their bodies. Thus the significance of this manuscript for the history of the Indian painting is great, in as much as it indicates the important changes that were taking place in the indigenous traditions of Western Indian painting during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Grantha Bhandars are not only the treasure houses for the books written by the Jaina writers but
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