What do you know about Jain miniature painting? Describe the aesthetic qualities of
a painting from "Kalpasutra".
Answers
Answer:
Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
January 2012
The growing prosperity of the Jain community in western India, engaged principally as merchants and bankers, allowed the commissioning of significant quantities of high-quality metal icons. As the custom of building large temple complexes became more widespread, so did the production of images and other objects associated with ritual and worship. One tradition that must be of great antiquity, but for which evidence survives only from around the tenth to eleventh century, is the production of palm-leaf manuscript editions of Jain scriptures, with painted illustrations on both the folios and the wooden cover (patli). The worship of the books of wisdom (jnanapuja) was a central activity in temple ritual. Even today the recitation and worship of the Kalpasutra manuscript forms an important part of the annual Paryushana festival celebrated by the Svetambara (“white-clad”) Jains during the monsoon season.
The kings of the Chaulukya (Solanki) dynasty, who ruled Gujarat and much of Rajasthan and Malwa from the tenth to the late thirteenth century, were energetic patrons of the Jain faith, building numerous temples and libraries in its honor. The twelfth-century king Kumarapala is recorded as commissioning and distributing hundreds of copies of the Kalpasutra to assist in propagating the virtues of Jainism, and was instrumental in the founding of twenty-one monastic libraries (bhandars) in Patan, his capital. In later centuries, the colophon evidence indicates a preponderance of lay middle-class patronage, principally by merchants and traders.
Answer:
The main characteristics of Jain miniature paintings are: 1. Quite stylish figures having heavy gold outlines, the figures having enlarged eyes, and square shaped hands.