________________
Palm-leaf Manuscripts
half of the 13th century V. S. or < 1200-1250 A. D. The manuscript contains six miniatures in fairly good condition.
Folio 1 shows a miniature (1:5"x2.2") showing Tirthankara Pārsvanātha, in green, sitting in the padmasana.
Folio 2 has a miniature (1.5"x2.2") of Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, sitting on a lotus, with her swan vehicle shown beside her left leg. She shows the lotus and the varada mudrā with her two right hands and carries the vīnā and the book in the left ones. Yellow in complexion, she wears a black bodice and a yellow lower garment.
Folio 189 contains a miniature (1.5"x2.2") of the Jaina goddess Ambikā, four-armed, sitting under a mango tree. Her two right hands show the mango-bunch and the varada mudrā, while she carries the citron and her child with her two left hands. The lion vehicle is sitting on her left.
Another miniature (1.2"x2,2") on folio 189 represents the goddess Cakreśvarī seated on a lotus, carrying a cakra (disc) in each of her two upper hands and showing the varada mudra and the kalasa (water.jar) with the two lower ones.
Two miniatures (1.7"x2.2") on folio 190 show a Jaina nun and a frāviká (a female lay follower). In front of the nun is
the thavani (a cross-legged stand). 390. RŞABHACARITA (P.) of Vardhamānācārya, composed in V. S.
1160, HJP. No. 41, folios 297 (last two are missing ), size 32"x2.3"; copied on palm-leaves in V. S. 1289. On the first leaf
there is a painting of Rşabhadeva which is mutilated. 391. TRIŞASTIŚALĀKĀPURUŞACARITA of Hemacandracarya in
Sanskrit, śāntinātha Jaina Bhandāra, Cambay, No. 186, folios 234, size 24"x2.2"'; copied on palm-leaves in V. S. 1297 (A. D. 1241). It has illustrations on leaves nos. 1, 2, 233 and 234 of Neminātha, Ambikā, a śråvaka and a śrávika. The last two seem to be donors of this manuscript.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
