Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.441

c6.441

Rao Bahadur K. H. Dhruva and Mr. N. C. Mehta have tried to prove that the painter and the writer of the *Vasanta Vilāsa* were not Jain, on the following grounds.¹⁶ (1) The erotic sentiment pervading the poems show that the writer loved life and its joys, and that not even remote reference to Jainism has been made anywhere, and, therefore, the writer was probably a Hindu. (2) The Jain poets designated the poems on spring as *phaggu*. (3) Men and women wear Vaishṇavite tilaks on their foreheads. Mr. S. M. Nawab controverts the first point by citing instances of the *Dholā Mārawānī nī kathā*, *Śṛingāramañjarī* of Jayavanta Sūri (Sam. 1614) and the *Kokachaupai* by Yati Narbudāchārya, which deal with subjects on love. Drawing our attention to the second point raised by Rao Bahadur Dhruva about the designation of *phaggu* to spring songs by Jain poets, Mr. Nawab is of the opinion that it was not necessary, as the poems deal mostly with the amorous dalliances of the hero and heroine in the spring, and that therefore, *Vasanta Vilāsa* is an appropriate designation. The title was perhaps suggested to the compiler by another contemporary composition named *Vasanta Vilāsa* by the poet Bālachandra. Replying to the objection that there is no reference to Jainism in the poems, S. M. Nawab retorts that there is neither any to Hinduism. Further, Mr. Nawab quotes Rao Bahadur Dhruva saying that the Bhandarkar Institute copy of the *Vasanta Vilāsa* is written in Jain Devanāgarī, and that several Gujarātī verses of the *Vasanta Vilāsa* were traced in a Jain manuscript exhibited at a certain literary conference at Surat. These points Mr. Nawab also takes in favour of the author of the *Vasanta Vilāsa* as being Jain. Then Mr. Nawab also goes on to say that Bhādra Sudi Pañchamī, on which the present copy of the *Vasanta Vilāsa* was made, is a Jain auspicious day, and the writer was also no less than a Jain *āchārya*.