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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354 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
painting in that part as evidenced by the illustrations of the Kalpasútra painted at Jaunpur in 1465 A.D.12 Though following the hieratic tradition, this manuscript shows a new movement and a new approach to figure-drawing which finally evolved in the Rajasthani type.
By the closing years of the fifteenth century the art of Western India (after considerable experimentation for almost 200 years) began to take new directions. It was found out that certain conventions in Western Indian Art had played themselves out. For instance, the farther eye had gradually lost its organic hold and had become merely a decorative feature. It is difficult to say exactly where and when this feature was eliminated, but there is evidence to show that, by 1500 A.D., this feature was found redundant and was eliminated. Apparently in this period the illustrating of Persian classics was also undertaken. They began to be illustrated by Indian artists. In such illustrations it may be seen that the Indian artists had simplified the Persian elements and had tried their best to effect a synthesis between the Indian and Persian elements,13 Not only that but in this period there is evidence to show that in Uttara Pradesh heroic stories such as the Laur Candã and Mirgāvati etc. were being illustrated in the Western Indian tradition 14.
That this Western Indian tradition had taken hold over almost all of North India is further proved by a new Buddhist wooden-pata, illustrated in A.D. 1446 at Arrah in East Bihar15. Not only that, but
12 Jaina Citrakalpadruma, I, figs. 1, 163, 179, 181, 183, 196, 199, etc.
Moti Chandra, Jaina Miniature Paintings from Western India, Figs. 99–105. Khandalavala and Moti Chandra, An illustrated Kalpa-sútra Painted at Jaunpur in A.D. 1465, Lalit-Kala, No. 12, pp. 9 ff. and
plates. 13 Karl Khandalavala, The Origin and Development of Rajasthani
Painting, Marg, Vol. XII, No. 2 (March, 1958), pp. 4-17 with plates. Also see, Pramod Chandra, An Outline of Early Rajasthani
Painting, Marg, Ibid., pp. 32-37. 14 Rai Krishnadasa, An Illustrated Avadhi Manuscript of Laur Chanda
in the Bharat-Kala-Bhavan, Banaras, Lalit-Kalā, Nos. 1-2 (April 1955-March, 1956), pp. 66-71 and plates. Rai Ananda Krishna, Some Pre-Akbari Examples of Rajasthani Illustrations, Marg, Vol. XI, No. 2 (March, 1958), (Special issue on Rajasthani Painting), pp.
18-21, Figures 1-5 illustrating Miniature Paintings of Mirgāvati. 15 Pal, Pratapaditya, A New Document of Indian Painting, Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society, London, Dec. 1965, pp. 103-111 and plates.