New Documents of Jaina Paintings

Author(s): Moti Chandra, Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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NEW DOCUMENTS OF JAINA PAINTINGS : 353
1558 = 1501 A.D. The result of all these experiments in the field of manuscript illustration apparently created a fervour which resulted in a great leap forward so far as the subject matter was concerned. No longer did painting remain the preserve of the Jainas. In the second half of the fifteenth century Vaisnavas apparently adopted the Western Indian technique for illustrating some of their books such as Gitagovinda and Balagopala Stuti10. These manuscripts, though they follow the Jaina technique, show a liveliness, a sense of movement and an emotional understanding which is different from the matter-of-fact Jaina painting so hidebound by the stereotyped tradition.
Of this new movement in painting the earliest document is naturally the secular scroll paintings of Vasantavilāsa dated 1451 A. D.11 This was not a solitary phenomenon; for even the Jaina painters, taking their cue from this new movement, introduced a new emotional element so apparent in the illustrations of the Damayanti Katha, and the Madhavanala-Kamakandală recently discovered and discussed in the following pages.
This new movement in art was not confined to Gujarat, Malwa and Rajasthan only. There is evidence to prove that the movement had spread as far as Uttara Pradesh and had affected the progress of
9 Majmudar, M. R., A Newly discovered Gita-Govinda Manuscript
from Gujarat, late 15th century, Journal of the University of Bombay, September, 1941; pp. 119-131. A Fifteenth Century Gita-Govinda MS., etc., Journal of the University of Bombay, May, 1938. Khandalavala, Karl, A Gita-Govinda Series in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum, No. 4 (1953-54), pp. 1-18
and plates. 10 Brown, W. Norman, Early Vaisnava Miniature Paintings from
Western India, Eastern Art, Vol. II (1930), pp. 167–206. M. R. Majmudar, The Gujarati School of Painting and some newly discovered Vaisnava Miniatures, Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Art, Vol. X (1942), pp. 1-32 and plates. Also see Khandalavala, Karl, Leaves from Rajasthan, Marg, Vol. IV, No. 3 (1950), pp. 1-24,
49-56, for miniatures of Bhagavata Purāņa, etc. 11 Brown, W. Norman, The Vasanta Vilasa (New Haven, 1942), with
plates. Mehta, N. C., Indian Painting in the 15th century; An early illustrated manuscript, Rupam, No. 22-23 (1925), pp. 61-65. Mehta, N.C., Gujarati Painting in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1931). Ganguly, O.C., Vasanta-Vilasa, a new document of Indian Painting,
Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, New Folge, Vol. 2 (1925), pp. 186-189. GJ.y. 23