Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras

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

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Notes on Art
resident of Salakhanapura (modern Becharaji near Harij, N. Gujarat)46. Ms. no. 577 in the Sheth Anandji Kalyanji collection, Limdi, is a Kālaka-kathā dated in V.S. 1473-1416 A.D. A beautiful miniature, very neatly drawn, illustrated by Nawab,47 shows dark wavy clouds with white lining comparable with similar treatment in the Mandu style Kalaka-katha of Muni Punyavijaya collection published by Pramod Chandra. 48 Of the same date are two Kalaka-kathās, one from Nawab's collection and the other in the collections of Śri Fulchandji Zābak of Falodhi (Rajasthan) both copied in Patan. 49 Nawab's figures 21-22, 27-43 (in Kālakācārya Kathā-Samgraha) from the ms. in his collection and figs. 23-26 from the ms. from Śri Zabak's collection are noteworthy for a critical study of the style of the early fifteenth century A.D. Nawab's fig. 21 shows Persian influence in the treatment of the horse, and the treatment of the landscape in the upper panel of the same miniature is possibly due to foreign influence. Trees are stylised as in other manuscripts of this period, c. 1400-1430 A.D. A Kalpa-sūtra copied in V.S. 1473-1416 A.D., at Patan, is also published by Nawab from the Jaina collections at Jira (Punjab).50 The Jira Kalpa-sūtra is another important document of the style of Patan. The Kalakacaryakathā, dt. in 1414 A.D., in the collections of Shri Premchand Jain, Bombay, is another important document copied in Patan.51 A comparative study of all these documents and the Kalpa-sutra of the India Office Library, London, 52 dated=1427 A.D. will show that the India Office Kalpa-sutra, though mainly following the Western idiom, yet belongs to another school or sub-style introducing a new pattern in the treament of border decorations and in the treatment of various figures and themes. Very similar in treatment and allied in style, is an undated Kalpa-sutra of similar format, in Hamsavijaya collection, Jñana-mandira, Baroda. 58. In minute treatment of details and in the selection of various shades of colours this Kalpasutra testifies to the skill of the artist. This Hamsavijaya collection Kalpa-sutra
Nawab, śri Külikācāryakathasangraha (Ahmedabad, 1949), p. 66, figs. 18-19.
"Nawab, ibid., fig. 20.
48 Bulletin of The American Academy of Banaras, Vol. I, no. 1 (Nov. 1967), pp. 1-10 and plates. Also, New Documents of Jaina Paintings, pp. 44-45.
49Nawab, Sri Kalikācāryakathasangraha, figs. 21-22, 27-43; and figs. 23-26; pp.
50 Masterpieces of Kalpa-sutra Paintings, figs. 72-77, 82-109, 112-113.
51Khandalawala and Moti Chandra, New Documents of Indian Paintings, pp. 15f., figs. 5-8. 51Coomaraswamy, A. K., Notes on Jaina Art, Journ. of Indian Art and Industry, no. 127 (July, 1914), pp. 90-91, figs. 9, 12, 45, 50, 51, pl. I
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