Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c8.5

c8.5

A number of medieval texts in Sanskrit, such as the *Śilparatna* and the section on painting in the *Mānasollāsa*, show this tendency of elaboration. It may be admitted that the medieval Indian painting has lost much of the verve and technical perfection of Ajaṇṭā, but this was not due so much to the technical deficiencies of the artists as to the conventional subjects which their patrons asked them to paint and which left little scope for originality, as the figures of the gods and goddesses and the Jinas were hide-bound by the strict iconographic conventions, any transgression of which meant the greatest sacrilege and calamity. It cannot be denied, however, that the passion and aspiration of the artists to do everything that was possible in their line to do and even to excel in things which others could not do, were responsible for many stylistic and technical developments, which led to the formulation of those trade-secrets which the artists guarded zealously. It is due to the secretive nature of the informants that the medieval Sanskrit texts on painting are unable to explain all technical points.