Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.259

c6.259

Dharmaśālā, Ahmedābād. “The drawing of these paintings is absolutely sure; the full and steady flow from a brush that never wavered, directed by an eye that knew no self doubt. The paintings are entirely intellectual, with little emotional warmth; the conventions of the style are faithfully observed; yet in spite of angularity of bodily pose, which the tradition demands, the figures achieve an alertness, rather than a posturing, which falls just short of vitality.”²⁸ As a successor to this style, Prof. Norman Brown points to the miniature depicting Kāma in the illustrated manuscript of the Ratirahasya, datable to early 15th century, in the Sarabhai Nawab collection, and in the illustrations of the Vasanta Vilāsa (1451 A.D.).