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Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c8.s1.t2: Cloth

Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c8.s1.t2

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English

Cloth

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It is a well-known fact that cloth was used very extensively in ancient India for painting. Even entire books were at times written on cloth. Thus a Jain Jñāna Bhaṇḍār, located in Vakhatjinīserī at Pāṭan, possesses a cloth manuscript containing the *Dharmavidhiprakaraṇa Vṛttisahita*, *Kachchhūlirāsā* and eight chapters of the *Trisha-ṣṭiśalākāpurusha-charita*.⁵ Its date is made out as Saṃvat 1408 or 1410 (A.D. 1351 or 1353) and its leaves simulate palm-leaves. There are, however, a number of *Samavasaraṇa* scenes, cosmographical charts, charts dealing with such subjects as mythical two and half islands, Jambūdvīpa, Navadvīpa, Hṛmkāra, Ghaṇṭākarṇa, various mantras and tantras, canonical subjects as the *Saṃgrahaṇīsūtra*, *Kṣetra-samāsa*, *Prāyaśchitta*, the six *sthānas* of the *Samyamaśreṇi*, sixty-two *mārgaṇas*, etc., painted on cloth and dating from the 14th to 16th century.

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⁵ *Jaina-chitra Kalpadruma*, p. 26.

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Scrolls of cloth were generally prepared for the purpose of painting. To obtain a paper scroll, the paper pieces of required sizes were pasted in length, but cloth pieces were generally of great length, and, therefore, a cloth scroll did not require cutting and joining. It was folded breadthwise in two or more folds as required, and the long strips obtained by cutting served the purpose of scrolls. These scrolls served the purpose of illustrating the *Pāñchatīrthis*, for writing documents and the religious orders of the Jain teachers during the rainy season, horoscopes, etc. They were occasionally used for writing and illustrating large poems, such as the *Vasanta Vilāsa*.

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Surface preparation.—Before the painting was started on cloth, a priming of the paste made from the wheat or rice flour was applied to fill up the pores of the cloth. After the priming had dried, the cloth was thoroughly burnished with an agate burnisher.⁶ This was the regular method of preparing surface in Western Indian paintings on cloth. In the cloth-paintings from Bengal and Orissa, however, a different method was followed. Here, the cloth, which was usually of an even surface, was coated with a thin layer of plastic clay which had been carefully pounded and usually mixed with cow-dung beaten to thin paste. When dry, the surface was rubbed till it became smooth, and it was then ready for painting.⁷

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⁶ *Ib.*, p. 31.

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⁷ *Ind. Arts and Lts.*, Issue XI, 1926, p. 43.

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