Science and Art of Calligraphy and Painting

Author(s): S Andhare
Publisher: Indian National Science Academy

Page 12

Fig 8
Stylus, knife etc.
19
கவிதாபாயத akage la84
பி
Lavētavām
સોના પર અ
Aduan shapta
www.c
THENING Sex টद собено олиготит
Sinners.gemanet Rajsmqliriரப்பு
wa
dkwaszolvamaa
Fig 9 A Gutka Ms
over which powdered lamp black was smeared. The Jains preferred writing with black and red inks mainly though use of golden and silver inks is also observed. Subsequently, with the introduction of hand-made paper for writing, the Jain canonical literature and other secular texts were written down and some of world's exquisite illuminated manuscripts were prepared. Although the language changed from Pali to Prakrit to Sanskrit to Apabhramsha, the basic script known as Jaina Nagri, remained common but later it underwent subtle artistic and formal changes as centuries rolled on.
Availability of indigenous paper at this point of time widened the scope for writing and painting and by about the 15th century, full page illustrations began to appear in the Jain MSS. As a rule, it is noted that as the centuries passed, the size of the folios, number of lines to a page and size of illustrations became bolder and bigger. Added to this, the mass production of Jain MSS. in this period resulted in deterioration in technique and aesthetic standards and by about the 18th century, traditional importance of calligraphic writing is on the wane. However, the last two centuries of Jain art, l.e. the 18th and the 19th centuries witnessed a new phase of socio-religious manuscripts in the gutka (miniature) form when the Mathen painters from Jodhpur and Bikaner area began copying and illustrating them for their subsistance. They persued their profession as painters and decorators, mainly catering to Jain