________________
114 :
Śramaņa, Vol 56, No. 1-6/January-June 2005
technique and style of the narrative composition continued to be wholly Indian. The palm-leaf Kalpasūtra painted in 1370 with only six miniatures is the earliest extant example ofthe first illustrated version of the holy book. All the folios are now in the Sarabhai Foundation, Ahmedabad. They depict a Jina, a preaching scene, the birth of a Jina, a Perfected being (siddha) and the symbol of omniscience. The Kalpasūtra-Kālakācāryakathā now in the Palitana collection, painted in 1382 with its fifty-six miniatures, roughly completes the compositions of the narratives. There is an early attempt to divide the scenes into registers to accommodate more than one episode in a single painting. Such attempts had occasionally been made in the previous century, butby the fourteenth centuryithad become imperative for the artists in order to keep the illustrations as close to the text as possible. These manuscript paintings represent the finest expression of the style. The Kalpasūtra of Idar, in which the use of gold is seen in the miniature for the first time, dates from approximately the same period. These paintings show the complete crystallisation of the Gujarati Jaina painting style in the fourteenth century.
The Kalpasūtra describes the lives of the four most important Tīrthankaras, Ķsabhadeva, Neminātha, Parsvanātha and Mahāvīra. It also contains rules for the monastic establishment. The Kālakācāryakathā tells the story of Kālaka, the great Jaina teacher, who sought the help of the Sahis who ruled across Sind (in the NorthWest frontier) to punish the wicked ruler of Ujjain. The story is not related to the Kalpasūtra, but it was appended to the text for the simple reason that Kālaka was responsible for the moving of the date of the Paryūṣaṇa festival, when the Kalpasūtra is ritually read. The Kālakācāryakathā painted at Yoginipur (Delhi) in 1366 is the earliest illustrated version of this text.
Unlike the painting style used on book covers, where a slight attempt was made towards modelling, the manuscript painting style remained strictly two-dimensional. Its hallmark - the beginnings of which can be foundin Ellora painting-is the face shown in three-quarter profile with the characteristic protruding eye. This new style can already
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
