Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.31

c6.31

The Sittannavāsal wall-paintings form the earliest published document of Jain painting; they are, it must be admitted, not different from the contemporary paintings of Ajaṇṭā. The second remarkable point about these wall-paintings is that they belong to a Digambara Jain temple. The point needs stressing as after the 10th century practically all painted manuscripts are Śvetāmbara, though wall-paintings in Digambara temples continued. Mahendra Varman I (A.D. 600—625), to whose reign the paintings of Sittannavāsal are attributed, was the follower of Jainism before he was converted to Śaivism by Appar. Sittannavāsal is a Jain temple and was carved out of the rocks by the co-religionists and friends of Mahendra Varman. This gifted prince was the author of a treatise on dancing and painting as revealed by Māmandur inscription.¹⁵ He also ordered the compilation of a treatise on South Indian painting and sculpture called *Dakṣiṇa Chitra*, in which rules were laid down for the guidance of painters and sculptors.¹⁶ It is, however, true, as observed by Dr. Stella Kramrisch¹⁷, that barring a certain physiognomical conventions in figure drawings there are no distinguishing features which separate Sittannavāsal paintings from the contemporary paintings of Ajaṇṭā and Badāmī.