Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c10.s1.13

c10.s1.13

One of the outstanding features of both male and female figures in Western Indian painting is the protuberance of the farther eyes beyond the facial line into space. Mr. Ajit Ghose³¹ attributes this phenomenon to the artist's desire to show that he was painting something flat, though his aim was plastic. Dr. Norman Brown³² advances the theory that this phenomenon is the direct result of copying the Śvetāmbara images putting on glass-eyes which extend beyond the natural eyes to a distance of a half-inch or more, and such images, if viewed from an angle, show the farther eyes protruding into space beyond the line of the cheek. Dr. Coomaraswamy's objection that this phenomenon also occurs in the contemporary Vaiṣṇava miniatures and in the wall-paintings of the Kailāsanāth Temple at Ellura, is not taken seriously by Dr. Norman Brown as, in his opinion, no direct contact could be established between the wall-paintings of the 9th century and the miniatures of the 15th century, and as in the Kailāsanāth Temple wall-paintings the painter probably intended to represent the eyelashes in the protrusion. It would be interesting in this connection to make further enquiries into the tradition of the protuberance of the farther eyes.