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Wall Paintings as Depicted in the Patodi Jaina Temple,
Jaipur Dr. Rita Pratap*
Painting in ancient India was integrated with the social life of man. It was not only a mark of man's personal achievement but it also revealed his cultivated taste. Bharata's Natyaśāstra enjoins the importance of wall paintings in the auditoria :
Samansu jatasobhāsu citrakarma prayojayet // 90 // Varied informations on wall paintings are found in the Purānas. The Chitrasūtra of the Visnudharmottara Purāna offers an encyclopaedic knowledge on painting including the wall painting. The other texts are: The Chitralaksana by Nagnajit, Bhoja's Samarāngana-sūtradhāra, Someśvara's Mānasollāsa, Vatsyāyan's Kāmasūtra and Yasodhara's Jayamangalā, commentary on it also make equally good references.
This tradition of mural painting remained as forceful as in Amber and Jaipur too - the capital city of Kachawāhās. Here the mode of embellishing wall remained in vogue for more than .hree hundred years, i. e., from late 16th century to the present century.
The paper dealt here is on the wall paintings as depicted in the Patodi Jaina Temple, Jaipur. It is apparent from the earliest murals found in Amber and Bairath that wall paintings had begun to received royal patronage from the time of Raja Man Singh ( 1590-1614 A. D. ), when he came in contact with the great Mughal Emperor Akbar - the ambellishing of walls with paintings had become a necessity and also a fashion.
For a number of centuries Amber' and Sängāner? were the Jaina literary centres of the Dhundhar region and Amber remained one of the earliest centres of Bhattārakas too.
After the establishment of the Jaipur city in 1727 A. D., the shifting of Jaina scholars, poets, artists and businessman took place who after migration constructed their own temples, places of importance and established Grantha Bhandāras 5.
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