Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c5.1

c5.1

THE study of Western Indian painting is of very recent growth, and before Dr. Coomaraswamy wrote his article on Jain painting in 1914¹, little was known of its existence. After the publication of the *Catalogue of Indian Collections in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Part IV*, by the same author in 1924, the study of Western Indian painting received a great impetus and various scholars, such as Dr. W. Norman Brown, Mr. N. C. Mehta, Mr. O. C. Gangoly, Mr. Ajit Ghose and Dr. M. R. Majumdar, joined hands in discovering new documents of Western Indian painting and throwing light on their technical and æsthetic achievements. Their researches have given us a chronological sequence in the development of Western Indian painting and also the distinguishing features of its technique. Mr. Sarabhai Nawab has been the last in the field and his work on Western Indian painting, named *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma* in Gujarātī, published at Ahmedābād in 1935, besides giving us a very good account of Western Indian painting, introduces us to hitherto unknown illustrated manuscripts hidden away in the most inaccessible Jñāna Bhaṇḍārs. The new material which he has given to us not only enhances our knowledge of Western Indian painting, but in some cases is æsthetically much superior to the stereotyped paintings already published. The beautiful border decorations of the *Kalpasūtras* published by him show that Western Indian painters in the late 15th and early 16th centuries were great decorators. The most outstanding part of the *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma* is the introductory essay by that veteran Jain scholar Muni Punyavijayajī on Jaina monastic culture and palæography. This essay is a mine of information on the art of writing and the materials employed in preparing books. It gives us valuable information about the palm-leaf, paper and cloth, the methods of preparing various types of inks and colours, and a history of the Jain Jñāna Bhaṇḍārs.