Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.362

c6.362

The discovery of the first series of the Bālagopāla Stuti miniatures, in 1929, established the existence of a school of miniature painting in Western India, without reference to Jainism.⁵² The manuscript, now in the Boston Museum,⁵³ has forty miniatures and is dated by Prof. Norman Brown to the middle of the 15th century. “In these miniatures additional elements (than the Kalpasūtra and Kālakāchārya-kathā manuscripts) appear in the compositions, particularly in the wider use of the foliage decoration, a great number of animals and birds, the more profuse illustrations of architectural settings, the picturing of domestic and other new types of scenes. The drawing becomes more delicate and refined, the composition more complicated; new bodily poses appear.” The second copy of the Bālagopāla Stuti is in the possession of the Baroda Museum.⁵⁴ Stylistically, the miniatures are very similar to those of the first manuscript. The third copy, in the possession of Mr. B. J. Sandesara, probably represents a sub-variety of the common paper period style of Western Indian painting (Figs. 170—173).⁵⁵ The miniatures reproduced here depict the worship of the four-handed Krishna—Krishna receiving toll from the cowherdesses, amour of Krishna with the cowherdesses, and the dalliance of Krishna in the forest. As observed by Dr. Majumdar, the artist has made efforts at shading the faces of the human figures, their costume, the architectural designs and the decorative patterns. The lines are thick and angular. The eyes are drawn on different levels, a characteristic feature of the miniatures in the palm-leaf manuscript from Chhāṇī, and on the whole the paintings are crude. The fourth manuscript of the Bālagopāla Stuti 56 may be dated to the early 17th century, and belongs to the Rājaratna Nārāyaṇabhāī Saṃskrit Pāṭhaśālā, Peṭlād. The fifth manuscript, belonging to the same collection, has twenty-nine miniatures which may be dated to the early 17th century, and are executed after the Rājpūt style.⁵⁷ The figures are in profile and new types of costume and ornaments appear.