Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c10.s2: Representation of Animals
Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c10.s2
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Representation of Animals
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No Indian landscape is complete without animals. The animals, according to the Hindu way of thinking, do not form a separate world as opposed to human beings. The belief in the transmigration of the soul places the animal world on the same footing as human being, though on the lower rung of the ascending scale of evolution. But, in this chain of successive existences determined by *karma*, the mineral, vegetable, animal and human existences are able to take two opposite directions; the spirit of an animal could incarnate in a human body, or the human spirit could fall so low as to enter the body of a beast, or fall still lower and enter the vegetable or animal kingdom. The end of each existence is to liberate oneself from successive existences till final liberation is achieved. This theory of the close bond between the human and animal life, further strengthened by the theory of Ahimsā which became a landmark in the Buddhist and Jain teachings and resulted in the non-violability of animal life, inculcated the love and sympathetic understanding of animal life, not known elsewhere.
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The anthropocentric tendency of Indian art in transferring the nature to the arena of human action brings the two entities close together. This close bond between man and beast was a great obstacle to the objective representation of the latter. But whatever Indian art loses from this, on the realistic side of animal representation, is amply made good by the keen and sympathetic study of animal life.
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The representation of animal life occupies an important place in the ancient Indian art. In the wall-paintings of Ajaṇṭā, a number of animals are represented with such a keen insight for their life and movement that they stand even to this day as a testimony to the great skill of the artists of Ajaṇṭā. The variety and the spontaneous execution of the animal figures are so natural that they rule out the application of hidebound formulas. It is evident that at Ajaṇṭā animal drawings were inspired directly from the models, and not from the animal chart or memory drawings as was a common practice in later times. The elephant is a favourite animal with the painters of Ajaṇṭā, and in no art of the world it has been represented with such sympathetic understanding. The elephant at Ajaṇṭā is not the ferocious brute of the African forests, but a gentle animal nurtured in the stables of a king. Even if he is represented in the wild state, he is not devoid of gentleness and humour. Monkeys³⁷ are represented with a keen sense of observation, and the antelopes³⁸ have the same grace and nimbleness with which they are characterised in Sanskrit literature. The representation of the bulls³⁹ shows how closely their habits were observed by the painters; the lion⁴⁰ and the horse⁴¹ are also represented in a realistic manner. The bird drawing does not seem to have been favourite with the painters, only the geese are the favourite birds of Ajaṇṭā painting.
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³⁷ Herringham, Ajaṇṭā, Pl. XI.
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³⁸ Ib., Pl. VIII.
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³⁹ Bagh Caves, Pl. XVIII.
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⁴⁰ Ib., Pl. XX.
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⁴¹ Herringham, Ajaṇṭā, Pl. XI.
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They may be seen disporting in the decorative floral scroll⁴², or flying in the air,⁴³ or associated with the palaces.
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⁴² Herringham, *Ajaṇṭā*, Pl. XLII, 57.
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⁴³ *Ib.*, XLI, 54.
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In the ancient treatises on painting, animals are often associated with the landscape. According to the *Viṣṇudharmottara*, the pictures of the six seasons have birds and animals as their indispensable attributes.⁴⁴ The same work recommends to paint the sky swarming with birds, the forest crowded with animals and birds, and the water with fish and tortoise.⁴⁵ The *Mānasollāsa* is the first technical text on painting, which gives elaborate description of the body measurements of a horse⁴⁶ and an elephant.⁴⁷ Fed up with such elaborate discussions the author concludes: "Innumerable are the beings which could not be described. The intelligent artist should paint them according to their forms. Their realistic representations should be as their reflections in a mirror."⁴⁸
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⁴⁴ Stella Kramrisch, *Viṣṇudharmottara*, pp. 58–59.
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⁴⁵ *Ib.*, p. 57.
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⁴⁶ *Mānasollāsa*, II, 1, 835–873.
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⁴⁷ *Ib.*, 874–898.
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⁴⁸ *Ib.*, 899–900.
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In Western Indian miniatures, however, the representations of birds and animals take a different character which represents the triumph of convention over realism. The animals are treated generally in a conventional and decorative manner, though the representations of the bull, the elephant and the deer have not lost, in spite of their archaic appearance, certain beauty of movements. The elephant, invariably represented as white, retains some of its former majesty and appears bedecked and painted ready to be mounted by the king, or to be led in a procession.⁴⁹ The bull, retaining some of its former realistic character, has often an exaggerated hump and a deformed mouth.⁵⁰ The deer retain their free movement⁵¹, and the monkey is still imbued with some of its mischievous and restless character.⁵² The massive horses evoke comparison with the horses in the equestrian Mughal portraits (Figs. 80, 99).⁵³ They differ from the horses represented in Persian painting at the end of the 15th century, but on the other hand they resemble the horses represented on the pottery of Rhages.⁵⁴ Horses with tapering necks and crocodile-like snouts are also found (Fig. 156),⁵⁵ and are reminiscent of the horses depicted in Persian painting of the 16th century. The tiger is treated conventionally (Fig. 155),⁵⁶ and its body is usually marked with lines to indicate the stripes. The geese seem to have been favourite with the painters of this period. They are not only seen perched on the housetops and trees, but also serve as a decorative pattern on the *sārīs*. The peacock is distinguished by the stylisation of its wings, legs and the beak elongated out of proportion (Fig. 149).⁵⁷ The parrot is distinguished by its bold and simple design. The serpent is treated in a realistic manner. In general, the ornamental treatment of the animals and birds tends to exaggerate, and, consequently, it eliminates the realism of the ancient school. This artistic conception of the fauna persists throughout the middle ages and even continues in the Rājpūt art of the 17th century and later.
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⁴⁹ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, Figs. 1, 164.
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⁵⁰ *Ib.*, Fig. 164.
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⁵¹ Mehta, *Gujarati painting in the 15th century*, No. 38.
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⁵² *Ib.*, No. 77.
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⁵³ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, Fig. 257.
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⁵⁴ Stchoukine, loc. cit., p. 91.
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⁵⁵ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, Fig. 180.
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⁵⁶ *Ib.* Fig. 164.
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⁵⁷ *Ib.* Fig. 191.
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Fig. 181
Linked texts (2)
- Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa — Sanskrit
- Mānasollāsa (Abhilaṣitārthacintāmaṇi) — Someśvara III, Sanskrit