Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.90

c6.90

It is true that there are characteristics of technique and subject common to all these manuscripts as observed by M. Foucher,⁴⁹ but the charge of extreme dulness brought against these miniatures is not right. Repetition was inevitable when the miniatures are viewed in their iconographic context, but both from the points of view of technique and careful handling of the subject these miniatures prove the high antiquity of their tradition. While criticising these paintings we have to allow due concession to the restricted surface of the palm-leaf which could afford space only to limited decoration and within which the composition was confined to the delineation of a few figures. The miniatures are not organically and decoratively associated with the script and they occupy spaces left by the script to be filled by the painter. The standard size of the palm-leaf is 23" × 2¾", and usually the miniature measure 2¾" × 2½". The subject is confined to the illustrations of different incidents in the life of the Buddha and the numerous divinities of later Tantric Buddhism (Fig. 10).