Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras

Author(s): Umakant P Shah, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 23

Treasures of Jaina Bhandāras
the Cambay no. 160 of Yogaśāstra with Svopaj navrtti, dated in V.S. 1251=1194 A.D. (Cat. no. 18) and in the Bhuvanasundarikatha (Cat. no. 392, p. 62) of c. 1150-1200 A.D. (from Cambay no. 213) we have decorative roundels. The beautiful, but partly defaced figure of Sarasvati from the ms.of Siddha-Haima in Sarabhai Nawab's collection, has been rightly assigned by Moti Chandra to the first half of the twelfth century A.D.15 Nawab and Moti Chandra have referred to a Paryukaņā-kalpa (Cat. no. 406, pp. 64-65) ms. from Cambay giving two miniatures, one of which represents Jineśvara Sūri.16 This is not dated and is assigned by Moti Chandra to this period but seems to date from c. early fourteenth century A. D. Cambay Cat. no. 256 entitled Kätantra - panjikă etc., and dated in V. S. 1287 = 1230 A. D., and a ms. of the Bhagavatisūtra from Hemacandrācārya Jñanamandira, Patan, no. 4, also contain beautiful decorative roundels (Cat no. 8) The manuscript of Mahāviracaritra of Trişastiśalākāpuruşacarita, dated V. S. 1298=1241 A. D. from Patan, containing three miniatures, has been noticed by Nawab and Moti Chandra.17 The Nemināthacaritra of Trişasti from Cambay no. 186 (Cat. no. 391) dated in V. S. 1298 = 1241 A. D., contains four miniatures of better workmanship, 18 see fig. 4 and colour fig. A. Of about this period, are the five miniatures from an incomplete ms. of the Uttarādhyayana sūtra, from Cambay, no. 78 of Cambay Catalogue, assigned by Muni Punyavijayaji to the second half of the thirteenth century V. S.= c. 1200 = 1150 A. D. The paintings are of Sarasvati, Ambikā, Pārsvanātha, Cakreśvari (fig. 13 ) and a Jaina nun (fig. 16 ) and a female devotee. The last one seems to have been better drawn than the rest of the miniatures in this manuscript. It is interesting to note that against the usual practice of this period, there is no odhani on the back of the head of this Śrāvikā. This period
15 Moti Chandra, Miniature Paintings from Western India, p. 31 fig. 53. Sarabhai Nawab and Moti Chandra have listed in chronological order the known Jaina palm-leaf mss. with illustrations. We are here repeating some of these with additional information about others not listed by them, and displayed in this exhibition.
Moti Chandra, ibid., p.30; Nawab, op. cit., p.40, fig. 104.
1 Moti Chandra, ibid., p.30 figs. 43-45, Nawab, op. cit., p.40, figs. 12-14. 18 Also noticed by Moti Chandra, ibid. p. 30, figs. 46-47, and Nawab, op. cit., p. 40. For Ambikā from this ms., see, Shah, U. P., Iconography of the Jaina Goddess Ambika, Journ. of the Univ. of Bombay, Vol. IX, part 2, p. 156, fig. 15.