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
miniatures are largely worn out. 61. Amongst other Brahmanical texts, miniatures of fifteenth century manuscripts of Sapta-sati published by M. R. Majumdar 62 now in the Barodą Museum and the Prince of Wales Museum, and the Bala-Gopalastuti manuscripts in the Boston Museum and the Baroda Museum, are well-known.63
To revert to the review of Jaina miniatures, an undated Kalpa-sūtra in the Dehla no Upaśraya, Ahmedabad, DA, no. 69 (Cat. no. 449) is a beautiful manuscript showing all the characteristics of early fifteenth century A.D. Fig. 38 from this ms. shows the mother of a Jina fondling the son, and resting on a chowki. The treatment of this theme is reminiscent of a similar miniature in the Palitāņā palm-leaf Kalpa-sūtra dated in V.S. 1439=1382 A.D. The same may be compared with fig. 39 illustrating this theme from a gold-lettered Kalpa-sūtra d. V.S. 1516=1459 A.D., copied by Vāchāka of Patan, now in the Jaina bhandāra in Sāmalā ni pole, Ahmedabad, no. 25/5. (Cat. no. 418). The pointed end of lower garment of Jina's mother is pointing upwards in fig. 39 which is just the opposite of that in fig. 38. It would seem that the whole bed-spread is shown behind the back of mother in fig. 39 with a design of a flowing river with fishes in it. The presence of a tree in one corner would however suggest that the Jina's mother is shown sitting on a chowki by the side of an actual river while the scene in fig. 38 is laid in a palace room. Fig. 40 from the DA. 69 (Cat. no. 449) represents the birth bath of a Jina. Treatment of overhanging clouds may be compared with the treatment in mss. like the Kālaka-Katha in Mandu style, age, c. 1440, in the collections of Muni Punyavijayaji, or the Satrunjaya Māhātmya of the same age in the L.D. Institute. 64 Fig. 41 is another beautiful miniature from this ms. showing a neatly coloured drawing of a Sakra paying his homage to the Jina. The DA. 69 should date from the second quarter of the fifteenth century A.D., i. e. c. 1430-1440 A.D. The Śāmalā pole
613 Shah, U.P., More Documents of Jaina paintings, figs. 28-29. 62M. R. Majumdar, Earliest Devi Māhātmya miniatures with special reference to Sakti Worship in Gujarat, J.I.S.O.A. 1938; p. 128, fig. 168. 43Published by W. Norman Brown; in Eastern Art, Vol. II (1930), pp. 167-206; also see, J.I.S.O.A. 1942; p. 26, PI. III 2 and Pl. IV; BILI 1-2. Majumdar also published a fifteenth century Gita-Govinda ms, in the Journ. of the Univ. of Bombay, VI (May, 1938) p.124, Pls. IV-X.
Moti Chandra and Shah, U. P., New Documents of Jaina painting (Bombay, 1975); Colour pl. II fig. A, p.46; Pramod Chandra, A Unique Kālakācārya-Katha ms, in the Style of the Mandu Kalpasutra of A.D. 1439, Bulletin of the American Academy of Banaras, Vol. I, Nov. 1967, pp. 1-10,
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