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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
99 Illustrated manuscripts : सचित्र हस्तप्रत
A large number of Jain and Buddhist religious books with pictures are called illustrated manuscripts. In the early period (Ca. 12th century onwards) we come across manuscripts in the form or loose leaf folios. They are on palm leaf while after ca. 1300, they are on paper.
The early Jain and Buddhist MSS had a limited space in between the text columns; sometimes two or three illustrations divided the space by columns of text. These early paintings were most of the times iconographic representations of Gods and Goddesses; in case of the Jains, the Tirthankaras or Devis occupied the central spaces. Their method of drawing and painting was simple, heiratic and narrative. The icons invariably followed the contemporary style and technique. The portion where the illustration appears is quoted with astar or some kind of white or off-white colour and was burnished from the front. The pigment got filled in to the crevasses of the palm leaf and the burnishing made the surface smooth for receiving minute brush strokes. Primary colours were used in painting and we see a predominance of red monochrome background all over. The knowledgable senior priest or the Pandit finalised the picture and indicated it through a small sketch drawn by the side of the space kept vacant for it The painter or the scribe got the idea from that key sketch to draw in detail and finish the work. In this phase the pictures are linear and there is no
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