More Documents of Jaina and Gujarati Paintings

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 11

A. D.' The charter is in Muni Punyavijaya Collection of the L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad.
But the third charter, namely, the Harsola copper plate grant of Paramāra Siyaka, dated in V. S. 1005 (January 949 A. D). is more important because of the beautifully incised figure of Garuda in human form but having wings: fig. 1. The treatment of the figure in graceful swift curves, and of the face in three-quarters profile but without the pointed nose or the 'extended farther eye, suggests the existence of an earlier style derived from the style familiar in the region under the Gurjara-Pratīhāras, or we might better say, Western Indian style during the ninth and tenth centuries. The existence of an earlier style is supported by another evidence of miniatures in the palmleaf manuscript of Ogha-Niryukti-Vịtti, dated in V. S. 1117/1060 A. D., now in the Jaina Bhāņdāra at Jesalmer and painted in Rajastān or Gujarāt. For comparison are attached here the photoplates of these miniatures (figs. 6-8, 10). From the format and the names of monks, donor and the scribe mentioned in the two almost identical colophones on folios 105 and 212 respectively of Ogha Niryukti and Daśavaikālika-sūtra-țīkā, it is certain that this manuscript was written in Gujarāt or Rājasthān, probably the former. 10 Both the manuscripts form one bundle and the pagination being continuous, they belong to the same age. .
This new dated find of painted palm-leaf MS. takes back our history of miniature painting in Western India to the middle eleventh century. But the Harsola plates of Siyaka found from Harsol in Sabarkānțbā district, Gujarat, take it still earlier, in the first half of the tenth century.
In an earlier paper I published, 11 it was shown that some wooden book.covers of palm-leaf MSS. at Jesalmer can be assigned to the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. 12
7. Also see Majmudar, M, R., Gujarat: Its Art Heritage (Bombay 1968), pl. XIII, and Pl. I. - 8. Dikshit, K. N. and Diskalkar, D. B., 'Two Harsola Copper plate Grants of the Paramāra Siyaka'
of V. S. 1005, Ep. Ind. Vol. XIX pp. 236 ff. and pl. facing p. 242. 9. S. M. Nawab, in his Nivedana (short statement as foreword) to the Pavitra-Kalpa Satra (critically
edited text with illustrations from various MSS.) edited by Muni Punyavijayaji, refers to a palmleaf MS. of the Bhagavati Satra, dated in V. S. 111 X (= A. D. 1053 to 1062) having six minia
tures, preserved in Dabhoi. I have not been able to see it as yet. 10. The new find, first referred to by Satya Prakash Shrivastava in a small article in his Hindi
Journal Akrli, was published without the discussion as to its importance in the history of art, and the photograph reproduced was not clear enough to enable a closer study. Dr. Satya Prakash was kind enough to give me better enlargements from his negatives but even these being not so satisfactory, the photographs for the present illustrations were kindly obtained for me by Muni Punyavijayaji to whom I am grateful. Since I have not been able to see the original or its
colour transparencies I cannot say more about its style, shading, colour scheme etc. 11. Shah, Umakant P., and Muni Punyavijayaji, 'Some Painted Wooden Book-Covers from Western
India', Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Art, New Series Vol. I, Special No. on Western
Indian Art, pp. 34 ff. 12. A bibliography of published Jaina painted Wooden book-covers is given in a foot-note in the paper referred to above, along with revised dating.
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