More Documents of Jaina and Gujarati Paintings

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

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The Gita-Govinda of N. C. Mehta collection has been assigned to c. 1525 by N. C. Mehta 38 and to c. 1540 A. D. by Motichandra and Khandalawala. The landscape, spray-like trees, etc. or the profiles showing one fish-like eye show the beginning of Rājput paintings. He is said to have acquired the manuscript from a gentleman in Rajkot. The somewhat long noses and a little longish faces are closer to the faces in a single page of Bhagavata published by M. R. Majmudar39 from collections of the Vaişnava sect at Kankroli (Mevād) near Nathadwārā, and with the old Gujarātī manuscript of the Pancākhyāna in the collections of the Gujarāti Department of the M. S. University of Baroda. The Pancākhyāna miniatures, which I formerly assigned to c. 1600-1625 V.S. or circa 1550-1570 A. D..40 show a similar tradition and are certainly earlier than the Bhāgavata folio of Kankroli collection referred to above. The Pañcā. khyāna miniatures do not seem to be later than 1530 A. D. and may be somewhat earlier. A few miniatures from Pañcākhyāna are illustrated here through the kind courtsey of Dr. B. J. Sandesara, (figures 56, 57, 55, 51A).
The Vaişņava seat of Shrimad Vallabhācārya at Baroda (known as Bethaka) was regarded as the property of the ācāryas of Kānkroli till to-day and they have been staying at Baroda for several months every year. Their ancestors stayed at Ahmedabad for sometime in 17th cent. A. D. Under the circumstances, paintings from Kānkroli collections need not necessarily be regarded as bailing from Mevād. Even the Gita-Govinda of N. C. Mehta, though acquired by him from a dealer in Saurashtra is likely to have originally come from Kānkroli collection. But stylistically the miniatures do differ from several other miniatures of Bhāgavata etc. in the Kankroli collection edited by Prabhudas Patwari.41 Some of these miniatures illustrated by Patwari belong to the third skandhr of the Bhāgavala and are of course of a later date. These later Mewad paintings can hardly be regarded as derived from the Gita-Govinda (N. C. Mehta collection), the Bhāgavata page (Kānkroli, published by M. R. Majmudar) or the Bhāgavata tenth skandha miniatures of 1598 and 1610 A. D.
There is, however, a complete Bālagopāla-stuti, still unpublished, of 66 folios, in the Kānkroli collection which is of the same style as the Ratirahasya page from Muni Punyavijaya collection (figs. 58, 60), the Bhāgavata pages of 1598 and 1610. Profusely illustrated, it has many interesting characteristics which will be discussed in
38. Mehta, Nanalal Chamanlal, "A New Documents of Gujarati Painting," Journal of the Indian Society
of Oriental Art, vol. XIII (1945), pp. 36 1f. and plates. "A New Document of Gujarati painting version of Gita-Govinda," Journal of the Gujarat Research Society. Vol. VII. no. 4 (Oct., 1975) pp. 139-146. Moti Chandra, Jaina Miniatures from Western India, pp. 43-44. Motichandra & Khan
dalawala, New Documen s of Indian Painting, p. 21. 39. Majmudar, M. R., Discovery of A Folio of Bhāgavata Daśamaskandha illustrated in the Gujarāti
style, Journal of the University of Bombay, September 1943, pp. 41-66 and Colour plate. 40. Shah, U. P., Citraparicaya, p. 20 with some more plates in the Yasodhira Kyla Pancakhyāna
Balāvabodha, Vol. I, edited by B. J. Sandesara and S. D. Parekh, published as Präcina Gurjara
Granthamālā, no. 9, Baroda (1963). 41. Patwari, Prabhudas The Divine Flutist, published by the Vaişņava seat at Kānkroli (1963).
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