________________ 3. The paintings Although the textual portions of the Ladnun pata contain a reasonable wealth of narrative material and episodes starring various characters, the iconography is one-sided in tune with the general perspective: the 24 Jinas are the only ones to be depicted, each in turn. Thus the paintings have nothing to do with The Ladnun pata has 24 illustrations of each of the 24 Tirthamkaras in connection with its depiction and celebration of Siddhacala. Each of the Jinas is seated in padmasana inside a temple-structure, a garbhagrha or under a canopy (chattra like). All the Jina images do not have the same size. Some (of the intermediate Jinas) are smaller. They all have their eyes open. Some of them are adorned with a garland, or/and a necklace in the usual Svetambara style. They also wear a red tilaka. Each of the painting is located in a rectangle which immediately precedes the section of the text where the given Jina is going to be celebrated. of a Jain temple with a richly colored roof, in red, orange and yellow with ornamental motives. The first Jina, Rsabha, easily recognizable through his cognizance, the white bull, is seated in padmasana. The painting conveys an atmosphere of exuberant joy. An equally colorful dhvaja in bright red is floating in the wind. Small bells, one easily imagines tinkling, are attached to it. A goddess-like figure dressed in colorful clothes is seen flying above the temple. It has features of an angel, having kinds of wings. Could it be Cakresvaridevi, the yaksi of the first Jina, Rsabhanatha? This painting stands out as the largest and the brightest. The lanchana or characteristic symbol associated which each of the 24 Jinas is not systematically represented on the scroll. It is found only in the five following cases: * the bull for the first Jina, Rsabha, * the elephant for the second Jina, Ajitanatha, the moon crescent for the eighth, Candraprabha, * the conch for the twenty-second, Neminatha, and the snake, for the twenty-third, Parsvanatha. In some other cases, the space for depicting the lanchana has been prepared below the Jina's throne, but has remained empty (No. 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21). The antiquity of the concept of lanchana has been discussed by art historians, such as U.P. Shah. It does not seem to be attested in the oldest Jina images. However, from the 12th century onwards, the lists of lanchanas appear to have become fixed. They are enumerated, for instance, in Hemacandra's Abhidhanacintamani, one of the standard sources for the full list of lanchanas. The colors of the bodies of each Jina also fully correspond to the traditional complexions as given by the Abhidhanacintamani and other sources. They are not a matter of chance. The identifying marks of the Jinas found in the Ladnun painting can be summed up in the following chart and can be compared with the chart given, for instance, by U.P. Shah, Jaina Rupa-Mandana (Delhi, 1987), p. 84: ucata 141
