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THE WORLD OF JAINISM
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The Jaina contribution to the art of casting metal images is now acknowledged by scholars with the publication of hoards of Jaina bronzes from Vasantagadh, Akota, Rajnapur, Khinkhini, Chausa etc. Some beautiful Jaina bronzes of the Chola period are now brought to light. A few such specimens are preserved in the Govt. Museum at Madras.
The biggest known stone sculpture in India, about 17 m, in height, is the beautiful statue of Bahubali, popularly known as Gommatesvara, at Sravana Belgola, installed in about 980 A.D. Of about the same height but of late period is another rock-cut figure of a Tirthankara at the Gwalior Fort. Another colossus sculpture of Gommatesvara, also set up on a hillock at Karkal is 12.5 m. in height, installed in 1431-32. A third one set up at Venur in 1603-04 A.D., is about 11 m. high.
Some of the mediaeval Jaina shrines are world famous. Of these the Dilwara group of shrines at Abu are especially attractive for their delicate carvings and fine chiselling of white marble. The famous Chaumukha shrine at Ranakpur in Rajasthan is noteworthy for its complex plan and a large variety of richly carved marble pillars.
As in the field of architecture and sculpture, the Jaina munificence is equally great in the field of painting. The Jaina contribution in this field is of great significance, especially of the mural paintings at Sittannavasal, Armamalai and Tirumalai in Tamil Nadu, and at Ellora in Maharashtra. These supply important links in the history of Indian painting. But the most prolific contribution is by way of book-illustrations or miniature paintings on palm-leaf and paper manuscripts from Western India, especially Gujarat and Rajasthan, dating from c. eleventh century up to the nineteenth century.
Most of these miniature paintings so far published are from manuscripts of the Svetambara Jaina sect. Of these, a manuscript of the Kalpa-sutra in the Devasanapada Bhandar collection at Ahmedabad, painted at Gandhara Bundar on the West coast in c. 1475 with a lavish use of gold, lapis lazuli, carmine etc., shows remarkable borders with paintings of different technicalities of Bharatnatyam and Persian influence. Another famous Kalpa-sutra, now in the National Museum, New Delhi, painted at Mandu in the fifteenth century is noteworthy for its colour scheme. A third Kalpa-sutra (Fig. 9) with fine decorative border designs, painted at Jaunpur, in U.P. is in the Jaina collections at Baroda. Wooden book-covers of palm-leaf manuscripts of the Jaina collections at Jaisalmer are interesting for depicting scenes from Jaina mythology (Fig. 8), for some beautiful renderings of meandering creepers and animals. Some of these book-covers date from the early eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. Most of these miniatures are in the Western Indian style with pointed noses, projected farther eye, squarish faces etc. Recently some interesting miniatures from manu
