Translating Texts into Art: Specimens from the Jaina Tradition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.02.07Keywords:
Jaina literature, Jaina art, Jaina sculptures, Jaina miniature painting, manuscript illustrations, Kalpasūtra, BhūpālastotraAbstract
This paper explores the ‘crossing of border lines’ between the textual traditions of the Jainas (oral and written) and the corresponding representations in works of art, serving also as a kind of introduction to Jaina art and its idioms for a broader public. It concentrates on three stages of pictorial representation of most eminent Jinas: it touches upon images that are possibly pre-textual (starting with sculptures from Mathurā dating back to the first centuries AD), proceeds to more narrative illustrations found in manuscripts of Bhadrabāhu’s Kalpasūtra, and concludes with a more recent specimen of the depiction of Jinas in miniature painting, as presented in a rather late illuminated version of the Bhūpālastotra, a text praising the 24 Jinas, which shows the efforts made to translate parts of the eulogies into the visual medium.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Āśadhāra. Bhūpālastotra. Illuminated manuscript on paper, dated VS 1887 (= 1820/21 AD). Unpublished.
Brown, W. N. 1933. The Story of Kālaka. Freer Gallery of Art, Oriental Sudies No. 1. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
—. 1934. A Decriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of Miniature Paintings of the Jaina Kalpasūtra, as Executed in the Early Western Indian Style. Freer Gallery of Art, Oriental Studies No. 2. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
—. 1941. Manuscript Illustrations of the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra. New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society.
Chandra, M. 1948. Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India. Ahmedabad: Sarabhai Manilal Nawab.
Charpentier, J. 1910. Studien über die indische Erzählungsliteratur. 4. Devendra’s ṭīkā zu Uttarajjhayana XXII. In: ZDMG, 64(2): 397–429.
—. 1915. Die Legende des heiligen Pārśva, des 23. Tīrthakara der Jainas. Aus Devendra’s ṭīkā zu Uttarajjhayana XXIII. In: ZDMG, 69(3): 321–359.
Cort, J. E. 1994. Following the Jina, Worshping the Jina: An Essay on Jain Rituals. In: P. Pal (ed.). Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India. New York: Thames and Hudson: 38–54.
Doshi, S. 1985. Masterpieces of Jain Painting. Bombay: Marg Publications.
Dundas, P. 2009. Victorious Across Eternity: The Lives of the Jain Tirthaṅkaras. In: P. Granoff (ed.). Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection. New York: Rubin Museum of Art: 16–33.
Glasenapp, H. von. 1925. Der Jainismus, eine indische Erlösungsreligion. Berlin: Alf Haeger. English translation (by S. B. Shrotri): 1999. Jainism: An Indian Religion of Salvation. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Granoff, P. (ed.). 2009. Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection. New York: Rubin Museum of Art.
Jacobi, H. 1879. The Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu, ed. with an Introduction, Notes and a Prākṛit-Saṃskṛit Glossary. Leipzig: Brockhaus.
—. 1884. Jaina Sūtras, Translated from Prakrit. Part 1. The Acārāṅga Sūtra; The Kalpa Sūtra. SBE 22. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Joshi, N. P. 1989. Early Jaina Icons from Mathurā. In: D. Srinivasan (ed.). Mathurā: The Cultural Heritage. New Delhi: Manohar Publications: 332–364.
Klatt, J. 2016. Jaina-Onomasticon, ed. by Peter Fluegel & Kornelius Krümpelmann. Jaina Studies 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc770vn. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc770vn
Mette, A. 1973. Indische Kulturstiftungsberichte und ihr Vehältnis zur Zeitaltersage.
Mainz: Verlag d. Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur; Wiesbaden: Steiner.
Nawab, S. M. 1978. The Life of Lord Shri Mahavira, As Represented in the Kalpasūtra Paintings. Ahmedabad: Sarabhai Manilal Nawab.
Pal, P. (ed.). 1994. The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Thames and Hudson.
Quintanilla, S. R. 2009. Icons in the Manifold: Jain Sculpture in Eastern and Western India. In: P. Granoff (ed.). Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection. New York: Rubin Museum of Art: 110–127.
Schmid, C. 2010. Le don de voir: premières représentations krishnaïtes de la région de Mathurā. Paris: École Francaise d’Extrème-Orient.
Shah, U. P. 1998. Studies in Jaina Art. Varanasi: Parsvanatha Vidyapitha.
Söhnen-Thieme, R. 2016. Mapping the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. In: I. Andrijanić and S. Selmer (eds). On the Growth and Composition of the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas. Relationship to Kāvya. Social and Economic Context. (Proceedings of the Fifth Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Puranas, August 2008). Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts: 207–337.
—. (in press). Jaina Tradition and the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. (Proceedings of the Sixth Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Puranas, August 2011).
—. (in press). Ṛṣabha and Bharata in Hindu Purāṇas. (16th Jaina Studies Workshop at SOAS 2014).
Srinivasan, D. (ed.). 1989. Mathura: The Cultural Heritage. New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies.
Winternitz, M. 1933. A History of Indian Literature. Vol. 2. Calcutta: University of Calcutta.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
