Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras

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

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Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras
Paper Mauuscripts
Since Moti Chandra gave his chronological survey of palm-leaf and paper Jaina manuscripts, a number of important palm-leaf mss. have come to light as will be evident from a brief account given above. Also, a large number of manuscripts of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have come to light which now give us a good idea of the development of the art of Jaina miniatures in these centuries. Since some of them show that they were painted at important centres like Patan, Ahmedabad, Gandhāra, Vadnagara, Broach etc., we now get a clearer picture of the art as practised in the various centres of Gujarat. It is impossible to list here all the known illustrated paper mss. of the fifteenth and later centuries but a brief survey of some of the dated early paper manuscripts is attempted to enable a future student to undertake a fresh critical analysis of the material now available. It is now quite clear that Patan was perhaps the most important centres of the style in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The earliest illustrated Jaina text on paper, so far known, is the Kalpa-sútra and Kālaka-kathā ms., Muni Punyavijaya Collection (now in the L.D. Institute, Ahmedabad), dated in V.S. 1403=1347 A.D., published by Moti Chandra and U. P. Shah.38
Sarabhai Nawab has referred to a Kalpa-sūtra on paper, written in V.S. 1410=1343 A.D. in the private collections of Sheth Kilachand Devchand, of Bombay, who originally hailed from Patan.39 Unfortunately Nawab has not published any painting from this document. The next ms. in chronological order, so far known, is the Kalpa-sūtra and Kālaka-kathā ms. of Khajanchi collection in the National Museum, New Delhi, dated=1381 A.D. already referred to. It seems that from about the middle of forteenth century A.D., there was a spurt in the paintings of the Kalpasūtra and Kālaka-katha and the number of the incidents and themes illustrated increased progressively. Fourteenth century has produced some very
* Moti Chandra and Shah, U. P., New Documents of Jaina Paintings, pp. 41-44, figs. 1-7, colour plate IA; Shah, U.P., More Documents of Jaina Paintings p. 9; also see, Shah, U.P., A Painted Wooden Book-Cover in the Oriental Institute, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, Vol. XXV, nos. 3-4, (1976), pp. 372-373 for a reply to the doubts expressed about the date. Khandalawala argued that the date V.S. 1403 given in margin of one folio is not reliable, and that the date V. S. 1503 on the last folio referring to its depositing in a bhandara is the date of the ms. But this date is also in a margin by another hand. The last page of original colophon is missing. "In his Nivedana (in Gujarati, Introduction), in Pavitra Kalpa-sutra, ed. by Muni Sri Punyavijayaji published with plates by Sarabhai Nawab.
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