More Documents of Jaina and Gujarati Paintings

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

Page 13

Incidentally, I wish to make it clear here that in the Sarasvati of 1127 A. D., we have a very close parallel, in style, of the frescoes of the Jaina caves at Ellorā, assigned roughly to the ninth-tenth centuries. It would be interesting to note that in these caves at Ellora, the artists have usually painted faces in three quarters profile as in the Sarasvati of 1127 A. D. The faces are generally oblong, not squarish, though with prominent noses. A little slip on the part of the painter would project in space, the farther eye. The human figures are tall, with long somewhat slim legs, and thus totally different from the figures with stunted torsoes and thick-set bodies of Western Indian style. The Saraswati of 1127 A. D. does not represent the typical human form of other Western Indian miniatures and should be regarded as more akin to the style of Ellora Jaina frescoes which probably represent regional Deccaniform under the Râştrakūtas. We must remember here that Minaladevi, mother of Caulukya Jayasimha Siddharāja was probably a Kadamba princess and dominating, ambitious, assertive personality, might have patronised in her kingdom several artists, scholars and others from her own homeland. It is only the linear conception and the gradual disappearance of shading that are common with other miniatures from Gujarāt. Probably the Sarasvati of 1127 A. D. is a work of an artist from the Deccan painting in Gujarāt. It is equally possible that this form is influenced by the art of the Paramāras of Mālva; (cf. the Sarasvati from Dhārā now in the British Museum)
In the Māndhātā plates of Jayasimha of Dhārā dated in Samvat 1112=10551056 A. D. we have a small figure of Garuda with the farther eye very much subdued (fig. 11).14
Dated in V. S. 1214 (1157 A. D.) are the Bhopāl Plates of Mahākumār Haricandradeva 15 which show Garuda in human form with a small three-peaked crown, long pointed nose, and slightly projected farther eye. The style is fully developed and mature and the figure of Garuda in human form is not without a realistic appeal (fig. 8). The Bhopal Plates of Mahārāja kumāra Udayavarman, however, show Garuda's face tarned on one side in complete profile, the farther eye and the pinched cheek are absent1 (fig. 16). They are dated in 1256 V. S. (1200 A. D.).
Since we now have evidence of at least the tenth and the eleventh century painting in Western India, it will not be out of place to refer here to some literary evidence from the Selfsame region.
About the art of painting in Western India, we have some interesting early literary evidence. The Kuvalayamāla-kahā, a Prakrit work composed in 778-79 A. D. by Uddyotana Sūri, the grand-pupil of Haribhadra sūri, 17 is a treasure house of cul
14. Kielhorn, F., Mandhätá Plates of Jayasimha of Dhāra' Samvat 1112, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III
. pp. 46 ff. and plates. 15. Ep. Ind. Vol. XXIV. pp. 225 ff. 16. Fleet, J. F., 'Bhopal plates of Udayavarman' (d. V. S. 1256=1200 A. D.), Indian Antiquary Vol. XVI.
pp. 252 ff. and plates. 17. See, Shah, U. P., 'Cattānām Madham', Golden Jubilee Volume, A. B. O. R. I., Poona, 1968, pp. 247 ff.