Studies in Jaina Art

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

Page 45

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STUDIES IN JAINA ART
pointed noses or protrusion of the farther eye. Figures show robust and rather stunted forms, with heavy heads, comparable with similar post-Gupta or early mediæval sculptures from the Gwalior State. Their affinities with late GurjjaraPratihāra and early Paramāra sculptures is unmistakable. These covers of a palm-leaf manuscript should be assigned to c. gth-10th century A. D.
W. Norman Brown has attempted to present a classification of the styles of Jaina miniatures. "He groups the earliest known examples under the stylistic classification 'A', and shows that the sequence of this style runs from these early examples through the miniatures in Hemachandra's Nemināthacharita and in the miniatures of the Sāvagapadikamaņa-sutta executed in 1260 A. D. In the manuscript of the Kalpasūtra and Kālakachārya-kathā in Pâtan Bhaņdār, dated 1279 A. D., he sees a sub-variety of style 'A', which he calls 'A. I'. In another illustrated manuscript of the Kalpasūtra, dated 1278 A. D., in the Samghavi Pādáno Bhaņdār, Pāțan, he sees the second sub-variety of style A. I' and designates it ' A. 2': 1
Style 'A. I 'is distinguished by relative lack of complication in ornamenta. tion as in the earliest palm-leaf manuscripts, by relatively low number of figures in a composition and by comparatively less details in costumes and ornaments. Thick lines are employed in preference to fine strokes. The peak of this subvariety 'A. 1,' according to W. Norman Brown, reaches in the illustrations of the Kalpasūtra inanuscript dated 1370 A.D. in the collections of Mukti Vijaya Jñāna Bhaņdār, Ujamphoi Dharmaśāā, Ahmedabad.2 Paintings of style 'A. I' are intellectual and show full and steady curves while 'A. 2' with increased finer lines had more accessory detail. The latter style continued in the 13th and 14th centuries. Amongst noteworthy examples of this 'A. 2' are painted wooden covers of the Dharmopadeśamālā (Nawab's collection) and the ldar palm.leaf manuscript of the Kalpa-sūtra belonging to the fourteenth century. The use of paper increased in this century and in the following one paper manuscripts show an increase in the number of miniatures. The Chhàņi palm-leaf miniatures, containing a rare set of paintings of the sixteen Jaina Mahavidyās (cf. fig. 69), are devoid of the smooth flowing curves of style A or the accurate detail of A2, and should be assigned to style B.: I should like to note one
1 Moti Chandra, oh. cit., pp. 34 ff. 2 Moti Chandra, op.cit., figs. 54-58.
8 Brown, W. Norman, Stylistic Varieties of Early Western Indian Painting, Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Arts, Vol. V pp. 1.12. For a bibliography on Western Indian Paintings, see, Moti Chandra, op. cit., pp. 194 ff to this add Pavitra-Kalpa-Sūtra and Jesalmere-citrāvali edited by Muni Sri Punyavijayaji.