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
paintings from this manuscript, will publish a more detailed studies of the various miniatures from this manuscript, now property of a Dig. Jaina shrine collection at Karamsad, near Sojitrā. Since the illustrations refer to the story of Yaśodhara, they are not stylised as in the theological texts like the Kalpa-sūtra and therefore have a wider scope in reflecting the cultural life of the age.
A Kālakācārya-kathā, copied in V.S. 1516-1460 A.D. at Patan (Cat. no. 419), now in the Pārsvacandra Gaccha Upāśraya, śāmalā ni pole, Ahmedabad, is written in golden-letters and is another beautiful manuscript with fine and varied border decorations (fig. 47). Recently, the National Museum, New Delhi has acquired a richly decorated Kalpa-sūtra painted in the fifteenth century at Mandapadurga, which Shri Karl Khandalawala will be publishing in near future. These manuscripts are referred to here to show that in the fifteenth century there was a sudden progressively increasing activity to enrich the manuscripts with border decorations, to introduce illustrations of new themes and to assimilate foreign elements in painting while retaining the mainly Indian elements and character, Cf. Colour fig. P. from Mandal Uttaradhyayana powerfully depicting a Persian horse.
One of the finest examples of Kalpa-sutra, dated in V.S. 1560-1503. A.D., is DB. no. 2991, now in Bhavanagar, but copied at Alavalapura, a place we are not yet able to identify. Figs. 50, 51, 53, 54, 55 and colour fig. R, illustrated from this manuscript will show that the style is very much allied to the school of Patan, but the creative genius of the artist has produced several beautiful paintings demonstrating his love of nature, and the figures are full of action and appropriate expression. Colours are bright, details are minutely drawn and new themes are introduced. Ultramarine is used in backgrounds with a few small white flowers scattered in several cases. Gold is lavishly used for body-complexions, in architectural and other decorative motifs, in thrones, garments etc. Bright white, probably of chalk is used in garlands, borders of ornaments, decorative patterns of garments of monks and nuns and in various other ways. Other colours used are light parrot green, red, pink, black, magenta, brown and carmine. Treatment of ends of lower garments of ladies (and sometimes of males but excluding monks and nuns) in some fifteenth and sixteenth century manuscripts calls for special notice. The lower garment, reaching a little above the ankles, may be golden or with stripes of various
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