Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.303

c6.303

After this comes, in chronological order, the best illuminated manuscript of the *Kalpasūtra* in Devasānā Pādā, Ahmedābād, which forms a part of the valuable collection of the late Muni Dayāvimalajī. The text is written in gold ink, and the manuscript was prepared at the behest of the descendant, the great Jain bankers, Sāṇā and Jūṭhā, who lived at Gandhār Bandar, near Broach. It is probably the most beautiful manuscript of its kind and the outstanding feature of its decoration is that it visualises the different musical modes and various dancing poses based on Bharata’s *Nāṭyaśāstra*. (Figs. 106–131).¹⁷ The figures of the dancers are remarkably beautiful, and reveal at once the mastery of the painter in catching the spirit of the fleeting movements in dance and translating them through the medium of line and colours. Though the borders are so beautifully painted, the same could not be said of the compositions, which, though imbued with a sense of lightness in drawing, show all the weaknesses of Western Indian art (Figs. 132–135).¹⁸ A very interesting point in the decoration is seen in the scene representing pacification of the serpent Caṇḍakauśika by Mahāvīra (Fig. 136).¹⁹ The central panel deals with the former birth of the serpent and its final pacification. There is nothing unusual in this from purely aesthetic view-point, but the borders, numbering four, framing these panels are of great interest, as they are definitely derived from the contemporary Persian miniatures. The side borders, divided into four panels each, depict fighting and hunting from horse-backs. The bottom panels show stepped tanks with four people in each tank, taking their bath. The panels have either plain red, green or flowered ground. The costumes of the Persian warriors consisting of turbans and coats is typical of the closing years of the 15th century. In the top panel, framing the figure of Mahāvīra, a pleasing elephant procession is shown proceeding from both sides, and is typically Western Indian in feeling and execution; the bottom panel, however, depicts a battle-scene in which five horsemen in Iranian costume are participating. From the decorative borders of this manuscript, and a few others to be described later, it is evident that Persian art was making inroads in the realm of Indian art, at least hundred years before the foundation of Mughal school by Akbar.