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PALM-LEAF MANUSCRIPTS
388. JNĀTĀDHARMAKATHA AND OTHER TEXTS, śāntinātha
Jaina Bhandara, Cambay, MS. No. 12 texts 1 10 8 in one bundle as shown below), folios 1 to 331, size 28.2"x2.2"'; copied on palm-leaves at Patapa in V. S. 1184 (A. D. 1127).
Catalogue of Palm-leaf MSS. in the Santinātha Jaina Bhandara, Cambay' (GOS. no. 135, Baroda, 1961 ), Part I, pp. 20-77 refers to a bundle of palm-leaves containing eight texts bound together, numbered and written containing in all 331 folios.
The texts written by one Desala at Pațaņa in V. S. 1184 (1127 A. D.) according to the Prasasti (post-colophon entry) at the end of the volume which contains in order texts of (1) JNATĀDHARMAKATHĀNGASŪTRA (folios 1 to 142), (2) UPĀSAKADASANGASŪTRA (folios 143 to 165 ), (3) ANTAKRDDAŚĀNGASŪTRA ( folios 166 to 187), (4) ANUTTARAUPAPĀTIKADAŠANGASŪTRA (folios 187 to 193).
Three beautiful painted roundels are seen on folio 193, two in the two margins and one in the centre. The marginal decorations show, in the roundels, figures of a mithuna and a lotus, while the central roundel has a figure of a swan drawn in it. All these decorations are painted in black lines only.
The small roundel with figures of a mithuna (a male and a female ) is illustrated here in an enlarged form since these figures are amongst the earliest dated specimens of Western Indian Jaina miniature paintings. As expressly stated on folio 331, the MS. was copied in Anahilapāțaka in V. S. 1184 (1127 A. D.) when Mahārājadhirāja Jayasinghadeva was ruling.
Thus decorations of roundels in margins, as well as the figure of a Jina on folio 194, and of Sarasvati on folio 330 are securely dated and are therefore important landmarks in the history of Western Indian miniatures.
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