Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.427

c6.427

While the drawings of the Tīrthamkaras follow stereotyped formulas, the scenes of pilgrimage with people toiling over the hills, resting, dancing, worshipping, or hearing to the religious discourses of their preceptors, are of considerable interest. It is noteworthy that, while the drawings follow the conventional formulas of the 15th century, there is a certain smoothness which imparts a lyrical quality to the lines, and, in this respect, the illustrations of the Vasanta Vilāsa stand nowhere near them. The drawing is extremely fine in No. 7, and is reminiscent of the wall-paintings of Ellura and the palm-leaf manuscripts of Bengal. The treatment of nature follows the same hide-bound mediæval formulas. It is only when we come to the representations of the dancing way-farers, the weary pilgrims, the discoursing sādhus or the devout worshippers that the purely æsthetic interest is aroused, and that is perhaps the principal point of difference from the latter but more archaic pictures of Vasanta Vilāsa.¹⁰