Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c8.7

c8.7

While studying the materials of Western Indian painting, there are certain difficulties which must be made clear. The documents have been published and described by competent authorities, mostly from the historical and æsthetic points of view their technical aspects have been touched only superficially. By this observation I do not mean to cast any aspersion on the great pioneers whose efforts in most cases were circumscribed by the difficulty of access to the documents in the original. This is especially true in the case of Jain palm-leaf illustrated manuscripts housed in the great Jain Bhaṇḍārs, brought to our notice for the first time by Dr. W. Norman Brown and Mr. Sarabhai Nawab. The difficulty in procuring illustrated paper manuscripts is not so great, as many public and private collections in India, Europe and America possess them and many studies of such class of manuscripts have appeared from time to time. A word of caution is, however, necessary with regard to this class of manuscripts. As is well known, the manuscripts generally owned by the museums and private collections are stereotyped versions produced in great numbers for the satisfaction of the religious instincts of the Jains. To expect the fineness of execution from such class of manuscripts is rather too much, as they are the works of mediocre artists. A parallel to this may be found in Mughal painting. As is well known, Akbar ordered the preparation of the illustrated manuscript of the Mahābhārata for his personal library, and at the same time asked his noblemen to take copies of the illustrated Razm-Namah, as the Mahābhārata was known in Persian translation², made by ordinary painters. Stray leaves of such versions have come down to us, the original being in the Palace Library of Jaipur. A comparison of these leaves with their original proves the technical differences in their execution. Similar is the case with the illustrated manuscripts of the Kalpasūtra introduced to us for the first time by Mr. Sarabhai Nawab, in which the artists have such grasp of decorative elements that all our preconceived notion of Western Indian painting are shattered. These manuscripts were apparently prepared by highly accomplished artists for their patrons. Surely, while giving our verdict on the technical achievements of Western Indian painting, such documents must be consulted.