More Documents of Jaina and Gujarati Paintings

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

Page 6

Āmukha
The present monograph is the revised and enlarged version of a lecture delivered at the L. D. Institute of Indology. The object of this monograph is two-fold as its title suggests-to bring to light some more documents of miniature paintings from Western India and to bring to the notice of the scholars materials that would in future help un. derstanding the new trends of painting in different parts of Gujarat during the last three to four centuries. I am of course aware that much more material is available than what is presented here; not only that future systematic search and studies would reward a patient worker in a big way.
Even today there exists (though fast disappearing) a number of murals in temple ceilings, walls of private houses (mainly in villages) which show the painting of at least the last two centuries. Of these, the murals depicting the battle of Chittal, the battle of Pāțan, at Sihor in the territory of the old Bhavanagar State, Saurashtra, Gujarat or the paintings in Baroda in Shri Sitārāmbuvā's vādā or the paintings on the wooden doorframes of temples (as in Vithala-mandira, Baroda) can be cited as noteworthy examples. Some years back Padma Shri Ravishankar Raval published a few murals from Pādarasinga.
Recently the undersigned has come across a hand-written gutakā of Pañcaratnagita from Samkheda (wellknown for its lacquer-work paintings on wooden furniture), in Central Gujarāt, which shows a typical local style of eighteenth century. Another such gutakā from South Gujarat, recently obtained, is equally interesting and typical.
No critical study or analysis of all these later trends is attempted here in this short introduction to the hitherto neglected aspect of the history of painting in Gujarat for the last three to four centuries,
I am thankful to the late Agama-Prabhākara Muni Sri Punyavijayaji for making available to me any number of manuscripts from his as well as other Jaina collections and to Prof, Dalsukhbhai Malvania for continuing the same generous tradition of the late Muniji and for his readiness to publish this in this form. September 10, 1973.
Umakant P. Shah