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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
72
Mathen painters, their status etc.
Jain rehtoric literature contains a large number of socioreligious manuscripts in the gutka form (Miniature form), Many of which are profusely illustrated and written by the scribes or painters of the Mathen or (Matheran) community of Jodhpur and Bikaner area; of the 18th and 19th centuries. This community was hitherto unknown in the history of Bikaner painting.
Mathen artisans are those who were earlier ordained by the jain gachha (section of jains), but were expelled from it for transgressing the rules of conduct Subsequently they were allowed to adopt normal life as grahastis. A majority of them took to manuscript writing and painting.
The author has discovered a number of dated manuscripts from different museum and private collections which reveal some partinent information about this community of painters and scribes, which was not known earlier.
We have seen earlier, that these scribes were called Mahatmas, Gorjis, Yatis etc. but in Bikaner they are addressed as Mathen or Matheran. They were not only associated with but
1. Sadhvi Sriji, Manohar Sriji Sri Dada Guru Chaitra (Guj)
Sri Vichakshan Smruti Prakashan, Ahmedabad 1991. pp. 45, 4b 2. Shridhar Andhare. Sri Nagabhinandanam Dr. M. S. Nagaraja Rao
Felicitation, vol. Bangalore. 1995. P. 81-88
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