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
of Jaina miniatures. Also with the growth of Rajasthani schools, there also grew, as might be expected, different schools in Gujarat, a proper study of which needs further exploration and research. The finds enlisted here, and in More Documents of Jaina Paintings as well as earlier in New Documents of Jaina Paintings point in this direction and we have now sufficient evidence111 to show the express need for further explorations and research.
Colour figures S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, ZA, ZD, ZE and I are all results of this new activity. The various Sripālarāsas and Canda-rāja-rāsas painted in Gujarat are also continuing this new activity.
One more interesting document of this activity came to our knowledge after the exhibition (mentioned in Preface) was over. We are illustrating here only one painting, in Colour figure ZD from a Kalpa-sūtra from Nemi-Vijñāna-Kastūrasuri Jñanamandira, Surat. The manuscript is profusely illustrated and dates from c. seventeenth century A. D. The painting represents the Jala-kridā of Krșna and his queens from incidents from the life-story of his cousin brother Neminātha.
In this manuscript different background colours are introduced, the extended farther eye and the three-quarters profile are discarded. Figures are lean, but costumes show new elements including influence of Mughal costumes from contemporary society. In the treatment of three-peaked crowns contemporary Vaişnava influence 112 seems to have worked from Bhāgavata miniatures etc. Some of these miniatures show influence of what I once called "Sirohi school" from the beautiful Devasānā pādā Upadešamālā, the Devi-Māhātmya painted at Surat in the early eighteenth century, now in the Prince of Wales Museum. The problem of nomenclature of Sirohi school is already discussed in the preceding pages. It is quite certain that this school had a wider provenance in the whole of Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan, especially southern-Rajasthan, and that this was one of the best creations of this new activity.
11 Besides the Jaina manuscripts, we have evidence of Hindu manuscript like the Balagopala-stuti of N. C. Mehta's collection (c. 16th century) the Balagopāla stuti of Kankroli collection, the Gita Govinda of Kankroli collection etc. 111cf. Paintings of Visnupuri's Bhakti-Ratnāvali painted in Ahmedabad in 1750 A. D. published by M. R. Majmudar in Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. VIII, part 2, September, 1939.
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