The present text contributes to our knowledge and understanding of the Jaina painting and minor art which are of great interest as being the oldest known Indian paintings n paper. In order to make them fully comprehensible the author first describes and illustrates the actual paintings by a short account to Jainism and of the legends of Mahavira and Kalakacarya, which are main subject of the pictures.
Beginning with a short account of Jainism, the author depicts the life of Mahavira and other Tirthankaras based on Kalpa Sutra in the first three chapters. Chapter four describes the faithful dealings of the holy monk Kallika with the wicked king Gardabhilla. Chapter five gives in detail the explanation of various terms used in the painting. Chapter six studies the whole cosmos according to the Jainas. The author is very clear in his mind about the artist's creation of aesthetic excellence, described in chapter seven. Chapter eight and nine account for the reproduction given in figures which have been taken from the pages of the Jaina MSS. Abbreviated reference is made in the descriptions facing the plates.
Author's cogent and remarkably well documented writings reveal the masterly pen recording the thought of a great master born to interpret Indian art for all time.
About the Author
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, the greatest among the Indian Art-historians, was born in Colombo on August 22, 1877. After graduating from the University of London, he became the Director of the Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon. Between 1906, and 1917, when he joined as the curator of Indian art in the Boston Museum he was busy lecturing on Indian art and formed societies for the study of Indian art. In 1938, he became the Chairman of National Committee for India's Freedom. His contributions on Indian philosophy, religion, art and iconography, painting and literature are of the greatest importance as were his contributions on music, science and Islamic art. He died on September 9, 1947.
1 INTRODUCTION
2 JAINISM
3 LIFE OF MAHAVIRA AND OTHER JINAS
4 SUMMARY OF THE STORY OF KALAKACARYA
5 EXPLANATION OF VARIOUS TERMS
6 COSMOLOGY
7 AESTHETICS AND RELATIONSHIPS OF JAINA PAINTING
8 THE ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPTS
9 DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
Index
Illustrations At the end
Sheth Sri Bholabhai Dalai and Sheth Sri Premchand K. Kotawala, the Trustees of Sri Poonamchand K.Kotawala Trust kindly decided to donate, from the above Trust , an annual grant of Rupees Two Thousand to the Jaina Cultural Research Society, Banaras. This sum is being utilised in inviting different scholars to deliver lectures, in the Banaras Hindu University, on any aspect of Jainology (Jaina Studies) and publishing such lectures. Accordingly, I invited Dr. Umakant Shah, who had submitted his Doctorate Thesis on Jaina Iconography, to deliver lectures on Jaina Art.
He was generous in accepting the invitation and kindly co-operated by agreeing to deliver three lectures on Jaina Art. These lectures were delivered in the College of Indology, Banaras Hindu University, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Vaiudeva Saran Agrawala, on 11th 12th, and 15th March, 1954. They are printed here with slight changes as "Studies in Jaina Art".
In his first lecture, Dr. Shah has attempted a critical survey of the Jaina Art in North India, i.e., in the regions North of the Vindhyas, such as Punjab, Sindh, Kachchha, Saurashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Bharat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa etc., and even parts of the Deccan in the Bombay State. In his survey he has referred to all important known cave-temples, shrines, sculptures, paintings, etc. He has surveyed antiquities dating from earliest times to about the fifteenth century A.D. Here he has discussed specimens of both the Svetambara and the Digambara sects of the Jainas.
Dr. Umakant's predecessors in the field of Jaina Art Studies, namely, Cunnigham, Fergusson, Burgess, Buhler, Smith, Vogel, D.R. Bhandarkar, Coomaraswamy, Motichandra, V.S. Agrawala, Ramachanciran, W. Norman Brown, Sankalia, B.C. Bhattacharya and others have written on several different aspects of Jaina Art, but Dr. Shah has for the first time attempted here to give a comprehensive review of the whole field in an admirably brief and critical way. From this attempt we obtain a consolidated view of Arts as patronised by the Jainas in North India.
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