More Documents of Jaina and Gujarati Paintings

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

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out balloon-like behind the head," Commenting on this they further note,
Odhani standing out balloon-like behind the head is seen in Jaina manuscript illustrations even earlier than the Manda Kalpa-sutra of A. D. 1439 and the Jaunpur Kalpasutra of A. D. 1465. The treatment of this mannerism in the sixteenth century North Indian style is closest to the treatment of the balloon-like Odhani as seen in the abovementioned Mandu and Jaunpur Kalpa-sülras." This is a departure from their earlier remarks in the Lalit Kala, no. 6, p. 13 where it was stated: "There can be no doubt that the convention of the balloon-like odhani as practised in the Mahapurāņa of 1540 A. D., was borrowed from MSS. such as the Mandu and Jaunpur Kalpa-sutras." It may be noted here that this practice of balloon-like Odhanis behind coiffure is a typical Gujarati trait of at least the thirteenth century elite of Gujarat as can be seen on the portrait-sculptures of minister Vastupala and his family in the temple built by him at Delvada, Mount Abu, and on a dated pedestal of a Tirthankara sculpture from Ladol (N. Gujarat) preserved in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. It is, therefore, not unlikely that this style was borrowed from Gujarat and/or Rajasthan by other centres in different paintings. It is good indeed that Moti Chandra and Khandalawala have modified their earlier views expressed in Lalit Kalā no. 6.
It may be noted that the balloon-shaped sari is seen in the miniatures of Mādhavanala-Kamakandald-Katha, of Samvat 1500-1443-44 A. D., written at Patan published by U. P. Shah and Moti Chandra in New Documents of Jaina Paintings, op. cit.
In the Golden Jubilee Volume of the Mahavira Jaina Vidyalaya, are published for the first time, some New documents of Jaina paintings, by Moti Chandra and U. P. Shah, mainly from Jaina collections, which the second author selected from two main points of view: (1) bringing to light unpublished noteworthy miniatures and (2) selecting documents which bear at the end dates and/or place-names. This method has helped in fixing the provenance and age of different styles.
Several new trends in paintings of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries led to the creations of different schools or styles, which are at present classed as Bundi, Mewad, Kishangadh, Basoli, Mändu, Malwa, etc. Similarly, some creative urge must also have inspired artists from Western India, mainly Gujarat and Western or South Western Rajasthan. Gujarat and Western Rajasthan (including South-Western Rajasthan) were known as the home or chief centres of what is variously styled as Western Indian, Gujarati, or Apabhramśa style of painting from c. 1100 A. D. to about c. 1500-1600 A. D. An area which had so much patronised and kept alive the art of painting could be expected to have created its own style in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when other schools of "Rajasthani Painting" (such as the Bundi, Kishangadh, Mevad etc.) came into being. Quite a large number of loose paintings were doubtfully called Malwa or Marwar or Mevad etc. with a question mark. Identification and provenance of styles of several such paintings can
44. New Documents of Indian Painting, p. 21, and colour pl. 2, and fig. 11. 45. Ibid., p. 21.
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