Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.9

c6.9

In the formative period of the Jain church, monks, in common with the Buddhist monks, were forbidden to live in the houses decorated with paintings. This injunction seems to have been due to the sensuous appeal of painting which detracted the minds bent upon meditation. Thus it is mentioned in the *Uttarādhyayana Sūtra*³ that a Jain monk did not like to live in a beautiful house decorated with painting, fumigated and perfumed with incense and flower garlands, and fitted with doors and white ceiling. At another place,⁴ it is enjoined that a monk should not look towards the figure of a woman either in a painting or actual life. In the *Bṛhat Kalpasūtra*⁵ a ban is laid upon the monks and nuns indulging in the art of painting (*sachitta kamma*). In the *Bhāṣya*⁶, however, which is a much later work, the subject of painting is divided under two heads—(1) *Nirdosa chitra-karma* or pure painting consists of painting of trees, mountains, rivers, seas, buildings, creepers, Pūrṇa-Kalaśa, Svastika, etc.; (2) the *Sadoṣa chitra* or impure paintings are those of flying figures, goddesses and ordinary women. The practice of both kinds of paintings was forbidden to monks. This injunction, however, seems to have been relaxed in the middle ages when the Jain Jñāna Bhaṇḍārs became the repositories of many painted manuscripts and banners.