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The Jain Manuscript and Miniature Tradition
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1237, also depict the figure of a Jina, monks and lay people. The Neminātha Carita of 1-42 depicts the Jina Neminātha, the goddess Ambikā and laywomen. The earliest extant example of an illustrated Kalpasūtra-Kālakācāryakathā, the most revered Svetāmbara text, is dated 1278. Yet another is dated 1279, also bearing paintings of iconic interest only. Most of these illustrations are not related to the text but seem to have an auspicious, decorative or magical purpose, as was also the case with Buddhist manuscripts from Eastern India, which predate the Jaina by half a century.
The narrative scenes illustrated on the wooden book covers of palm-leaf manuscripts do not indicate the beginning of a new painting era. They mostly commemorate specific events of great historical importance for the community and the patrons - the book cover depicting the debate between Kumudacandra, a Digambara monk and the Svetāmbara monk Vādideva, which took place at Patan in the time of Jayasiṁha Siddharāja (1094-1144) of Gujarat is such an example. Similar book covers represent Jinadatta Sūri (active 112254). The ancient Indian narrative tradition is used in these paintings, a tradition seen even in the earliest manuscript illustrations.
The earliest manuscript to establish a relationship between illustration and text is the Subāhukathā and seven other stories (dated 1288). It has 23 miniature paintings. These miniatures are not iconic in their composition: for the first time the locales in which the scenes take place are indicated in the paintings, either by pavilions or landscape compositions. These compositions became more complex in the later miniatures. Interestingly, they follow the ancient tradition of narrative art, in which locale is suggested but time is eliminated, a tradition the painters must have known about from early cloth paintings and temple relief sculptures, and which is also used on the wooden book covers mentioned above.
The introduction of narrative painting in Indian manuscripts was probably inspired by Persian examples, for as we have seen, there was no early tradition of manuscript illustration in India. But the
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