More Documents of Jaina and Gujarati Paintings

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

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once a Gujarāti area. It would not be surprising if we later find that this (Sirohi) school was current in some other parts of Gujarāt in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries.
A Sripāla-rāsa in Gujarātī, copied in Surat in V. S. 1886=1829 A. D. has paintings reminiscent of certain characteristics of this Upadeśamālā Bālāvabodha which latter was originally composed in Surat, and since the last page of Upadeśamālā Balavabodha seems to have been a replaced one, it is difficult to say where it was copied and painted.
For the information of scholars of the history of painting in Gujarāt I am illustrating here painting from a Vijñaptipatra written from Rājanagara (Ahmedabad) in 1853 A. D, (fig. 78) from collection of Muni Sri Punyavijayaji in the L. D. Insstitute of Indology, Ahmedabad, and from another Vijñptipatra sent by the Jaina community of Surat to an ācārya at Bahedānagar, written in the nineteenth century (fig. 79) also from the same collection. More interesting is a Kalpa-sūtra painted at Ahmedabad in Samvat 1727=1670 A. D. from which a page is illustrated here in fig. 77. An artist Chavārā Rajebaji from Palanpur, N. Gujarat, painted a Madhumalatī Chaupai in c. late nineteenth century A. D. and inserted his own portrait in it, illustrated here in fig. 45.
During the last forty years a very large member of illustrated manuscripts, scrolls, wooden-book covers, canvass patas etc. have come to light from Jaina collections in Western India. They not only throw light on the art of painting from the eleventh century to the twentieth century in Gujarat and Rajasthān, but also incidentally supply a good deal of data concerning the life and culture of their times. For example, the beautifully illustrated Upadeśamālā Bālāvabodh from Devasa-nā Pādāno Bhandar has a miniature showing the runner postman in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century; another miniature shows a goldsmith's workshop; a Pañcākhyāna miniature shows a weaver on handloom : The various Vijñaptipatras represent the main bazars of various towns and cities like Baroda, Jesalmere, Surat, Vadnagar etc.
It would be interesting to give here a glimpse of the vast variety of illustrated material now available. I give a small list : (1) Kalpa-sútra, several manuscripts, of which the Māndu Kalpasūtra in the National Museum, the Jamnagar Kalpa-sútra painted in Pāțaņ, the Jaunpur KP Sū. now in Baroda Jaina Jñānamandir, the Devasā nā Pādā KP Su., etc. are amongst the most noteworthy ones. (2) The Kālakakathās, the Mäņdu style Kālaka-kathā of Punyavijaya collection, and several others published by Brown, Nawab, and Moti Chandra are noteworthy. (3) The MSS. of Uttarădhyayana sūtra--note the Uttarādhyayana ms. dated 1591 in Baroda Museum, the Anjāra Vitarādhyayana in Punya vijaya collection, two more in Devasā nā Pada collection not yet published, and several others. Besides the above more popular books, following varieties of illustrated manuscripts are discovered so far.*
* Place names in brackets against titles in the list refer to the present location of the manuscript
or manuscripts.
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