Studies in Jaina Art

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 40

A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAINA ART IN THE NORTH
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shrines being far less numerous than at Satruñjaya. Neminātha temple, the largest in the group, repaired in the 13th century, is enclosed within a courtyard with about 70 cells. The temple has a handsome mandapa while the vimāna is composed of a grouping of turrets around a central tower in a scheme common to izth century temples in Western India. The Vastupāl temple is a remarkable triple structure composed of three separate shrines, leading out of the three sides of the central hall, the fourth side forming the entrance. The central shrine is dedicated to the nineteenth Jina Mallinātha, while the two lateral shrines, formed like pillared halls, contain moniments of solid masonry. The northern one has a square base and represents the Mount Meru of Jaina mythology while the southern shrine contains a representation of the Sameta Sikhara or Mt. Pārasanātha in Bihār where twenty Tirthankaras obtained nirvāņa. The Jainas similarly represent another mountain called Aştāpada, a specimen of which is available in the Rāṇakpur temple described above. Such representations are at present known as "avatāra ", e.g. Satruñjaya-tirthāvatāra (cf. fig. 59 representing a plaque oí Šatruñjaya and Girnār).
Amongst several other smaller temple-cities of less architectural value are Songadh near Datiā, Central India, Kundalpur in the Damoh district, C. P:, Muktagiri near Gawalgarh in Berar and Mt. Pärasnātha in Bihār. The group of temples at Papaurā in Orchha State, and Jhālrāpāțan in the Jhālāwād State in Central India await a more detailad study. Paintings
The tradition of Jaina painting is as old as Buddhist painting. In one of the extensive rock-cut caves at Udayagiri and Khaņdagiri in Orlssa, assignable to c. Ist century B. C., traces of paintings have been marked. 1 The Sittannavāsal wall-paintings in the old Pudducotta State, Madras, form the earliest published document of Jaina painting. Assignable to the reign of Mahendravarman I, the great Pallava king and artist (C. 600-625 A. D.), they are not essentially different from the contemporary paintings at Ajanță. As observed by Stella Kramrich, barring a certain physiognomical conventions in figure drawings there are no distinguishing features separating Sittānnavāsal paintings from contemporary paintings of Ajanță and Badāmi. A review of later wall-paintings in the South at Ellora and elsewhere or of the miniatures of Digambara Jaina manuscripts at Mūdabidri is beyond the scope of this survey of Jaina art in the North.
In the north, most of the existing specimens of Jaina paintings belong to the Mediaeval Western Indian School, which has for its background the School of Ancient West mentioned by Tārānāth. Since specimens of paintings of this
1 Moti Chandra, Jaina Miniature Painting from Western India, p. 1o. 2 JISOA., Vol. V. p. 218.