Fresh greens for the foliage and dark blue clouds sprinkled with lightning set the rain celebration scene. Court ladies have gathered on the lawn, and some swing under a blossoming tree, while the raja and a woman watch the exciement below from a balcony of his white palace.
Jina venerated by a monk and a lay devotee from Digambara Jain Manuscript
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
A man reclines on a carpet or cloth, and looks up at two figures above him. On the right, a deity sits cross-legged on a pedestal with a canopy over its head. To the left, another figure faces the deity, also on a pedestal carpet. He appears to be naked, and raises his in gesture towards the deity. A metal lamp or ewer rests below him, on what appears to be an abstract mountain, on which the reclining man also lies. He holds what may be prayer beads, and wears robes with stripes and his covered head rests on a pillow.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina and worshipper
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
In the upper register of this folio a woman holds a child who is crowned and adorned with jewels. The golden hue of the infant, along with the fan held above their heads signifies the child’s importance. They sit in devotion before a Jina, indicated by his nudity—a trademark of Digambara Jina and a sign of purity.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina and monk with Lakshmi-Narayana & Ardhanarishvara (fol. No. 42)
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
This work is painted in tones of red, green, dark blue, and orange/gold, against a light background. At the top is a sun with a many rays and a human face. Below this are two seated figures who are unclothed. They are seated on thrones decorated with colorful designs. One has reddish skin and is shown in profile, looking at the sun with hands raised. The other has orange skin and is seated in a lotus posiiton, facing front. Below them is a scene that shows two figures, a woman and a blue-skinned man, turned toward a half-man, half-woman figure who is seated on a tiger rug. These figures are dressed in colorful clothing and adorned with jewelry and hold various objects in their hands.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina venerated by a monk and a royal devotee
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
This is a brightly colored painting on a light background. It depicts a three- tiered scene with several figures, standing and kneeling, looking toward a central seated figure in the top tier. This male figure is seated in lotus position on a throne, decorated with colorful designs. To his left and right are attendants who fan him. In the middle tier, there is a nude man with long hair, a kneeling woman and a figure who is half-man and half-serpent. In the bottom tier, there are two kneeling men, wearing robes and headdresses, with hands pressed together and eyes gazing upward toward the main figure. They are surrounded by a tiger, a bird, an insect and a serpent.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina and battle scene
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
Worshippers gather and seem to celebrate around a sky-clad (nude) Jina and monk at top center. Flanking these figures are two searted drummers. In the lower register men on horseback and elephant look up to them as the ride by and raise their weapons in battle. A trumpeter sounds his instrument in the bottom left.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina venerated by a community of laymen
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
Eight worshippers sit to the right of a sky-clad (nude) Jina and monk. They each raise beads in their hands. Below them a struggle is depicted. Two men in shorts wrestle, while a snake, tiger, and elephant rera up beside a fire.
Jina venerated by a monk, men and women, a naga, and animals from a Digambara Jain manuscript
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
A Jina is encircled by a giant halo of ref, green, blue, gold, and white. Within the halo are different creatures, including a tiger, bird, naga, and devotees. The Jina sits nude on a throne with his legs crossed and hands together. Above him are clouds in the sky, and below a monk and devotees.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina venerated by a monk, layman, and cobras
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
A naked Jina sits on a throne with a naked monk to his left offering praise. A devotee sits in a lotus pond that is surrounded by flames, yet his face appears serene ans he holds his rosary. Two cobras appear next to the flames, with a three in the background.
Jina and a monk in a landscape from a Digambara Jain manuscript
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
This painting illustrates a verse from a Digambara Jain manuscript that likens the capacity of praising the Jina to destroy sins to the way the sun obliterates darkness; it shows a sun with the face of a Jina illuminating the sky. The golden-hued Jina and the monk who venerate a Jina are nude, identifying them as belonging to the Digambara (sky-clad) sect of Jainism.
Jina venerated by a monk and a royal devotee from a Digambara Jain manuscript
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
This painting is a rare depiction of the Jina’s first preaching. It is said that the speech of the Jina is like no other and that miracles occur upon hearing it. Here the Jina is depicted with four heads, representing the miraculous ability to see from all four directions at once. The golden-hued Jina and the monk who venerate a Jina are nude, identifying them as belonging to the Digambara (sky-clad) sect of Jainism.
Jina and a devotee from a Digambara Jain manuscript
Artist
Artist Unknown, India
Physical Description
Nude (Jina, center) and a devotees (nude on left, and other clothed figures) depicted in a folio of a Jain manuscript.
The image contains trees, lotus flowers and dark clouds. The the colors are composed of vivid reds, browns, yellows, greens and blues. The image is surrounded by a red and green pattereed border which resembles a chain.
Jina and devotees from a Digambara Jain manuscript
Artist
Artist Unknown, India
Physical Description
Nude Jina sitting on altar-like structure in center of image. The "altar" is sitting on a lotus flower. There are devotees on all four sides of Jina, a total of five persons. The devotee at the left is also nude. There are red and yellow flags, and various flowers scattered all over the image. There is a red and green border. The colors present are vivid reds, greens, yellows and deep blues.
Multi-colored ink on paper. Prominent reds, yellows and blues. Six figures, three smaller (clothed), three larger (nude or semi-nude). Scene of worship.
Multi-colored ink on paper. Reds and golds make up the primary focus colors and are accented by dark blues. Features five figures, two larger figures on the top half of the page and three smaller figures on the bottom. Scene of worship.
Jain Tirthankara and a monk with animal forest scene, no. 12 from a Digambara series
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
Two distinct registers divide a page in half. At the top, a yellow-orange colored nude jina sits in lotus position upon a three tiered throne [a patterned blue level at the bottom on feet, with an orange section with gold and red decoration and a green level at the top with gold vertical stripes]. He sits against a red background adorned with a pattern of three white dots. The background takes the shape of an elegant cusped arch with a green and white pattern along its outside with a gold pattern at its sides. To the right of the seated figure a nude Digambara monk sits with his legs folded and one knee up on a less elaborate throne with a lota or pot at the corner and a crossed bookstand to the side holding a book with some devanagari writing on it. He raises his right arm and holds his left to his ear.
Placed under a band of curving yellow stripes, the bottom register represents animals in a landscape. At the bottom are clumps of grass with four stylized mountain forms in blue at the right. Above the mountains stands a tiger facing a family of antelope striding towards him. The family consists of the blue male with his long spiraling horns and a yellow doe below him with a flesh-colored in front of her. Another small yellow fawn takes up the rear. Clumps of light blue and green grasses fill in the background.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina venerated by a monk, raja, and warriors
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
The image is divided in to two main halves.
The top half is divided in 3, and the bottom half divided in 6. All the divided spaces, except for the lower right corner contain a human figure. In the top half the two outer figures face inward toward the central figure who is seated on a panel slightly above them. The central figure is yellow, with out clothing, on a red background outlined with an olive green border. The figure to the left is cream colored without clothing on a pinkish background. While the figure to the right is clothed in red on a green background.
The figures in the lower half carry shields and various weapons. The dominate colors in each of the 6 sections rotates between green, blue, red and yellow.
Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina and worshippers
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School
Physical Description
This image is divided in to 6 relatively equal portions, with the two most upper portions being slightly larger. Each section contains a human figure, except for the lower right section which contains 3 fish. The three figures on the left are featured profile facing towards the right. The two figures in the two lower sections on the right, mirror the left side and face profile to the left. The figure in the upper right corner faces out. This figure is yellow, without clothing, on a green background. This figure is also seated on a lotus blossom form above all the other figures. The figure to his left is also without clothing and is the only other figure to be seating not directly on the floor.
The dominate colors in this image rotate between orange, green, red and blue with yellow highlights.
Vishnu stands with his legs apart holding his four attributes in his hands. Reading in clockwise direction from his right front hand he holds: his club, discus, conch and lotus, here a rather flat object cupped in his palm. His back two arms are extremely short. The figure is encircled with a decorated arch with a line of beads and triangular shaped openings around them. A stylized sun and moon are to either side of Vishnu’s head. He wears a variety of simple, lumpy jewelry at his feet are a horse to his right and a bull or cow to his left and between them are three rings lying flat on the base. At the front of the base are seven stylized horses, identifying this as a combination figure: Vishnu and the sun god Surya, whose chariot is pulled by seven horses.
Plate Inscribed with Flying Figure of Hanuman Holding a Flag, Mace and Spear
Artist
Artist Unknown, India, Rajasthan
Physical Description
Hanuman is depicted with a human body and a monkey head. The image is incised on the plate and his body is entirely textured with characters in the devanagari script. Often merely the letter ‘r’ designating the god Rama with whom he is associated. He is in a striding posture and there are a number of sections of text scattered around the image. At his feet is a human figure walking in the opposite direction. He holds a double flag consisting of two triangular shapes facing him in his left hand along with a thin club. One appears to emanating from his mouth? His right hand is lifted with an arrow above it and his tail curves behind him. There is also a small altar depicting the two feet of Rama in the area between his outstretched leg and the end of a scarf wrapped around his body.
Lady meeting her lover from the Rasamanjari of Bhanudatta series
Artist
India, Rajasthan, Mewar School
Physical Description
Brightly colored painting with three primary registers. The uppermost and smallest register contains a poem. The lower two are larger and similar in size. The bottommost depicts stairs, architectural structures, snakes, and flowering plants. Above, the middle register frames a seated man under a canopy-like architectural form, who reaches out to grasp the wrist of a woman. Behind her is a flowering tree, and and the far right, and open door.
Three main figures (two men and the camel they are riding) are brought to the foreground because of the contrast between their light colors against the stark green hill. The hill dominates the background leaving only a little bit of blue sky visible in the top corners. Underneath the main figures a secondary white dog and rabbit are also prominent.
Bilvamangala series: Krishna Venerated by People and Animals (fol. no. 8)
Artist
India, Rajasthan, Mewar School
Physical Description
Ink, watercolor and gold on paper. Central figure, Vishnu with devotees on his right and left. Male figures are located on the left side of Vishnu and the female figures on the right. The animals are depicted on the lower half of the portrait which goes with traditional hierarchical beliefs. The tiger is on the left and the elephant on the right.
Two lovers sit in an elaborate, symmetrical marble palace, decorated with inlaid stone and a domed roof. Inside, a highly individualized prince sits near his lover and caresses her chin. Above the scene is a box containing calligraphic text.
Two figures, Shani and his tiger are depicted centrally in the image. The background is very simple with some grass tufts and a pond near the very bottom of the images.
Iconography series: Brisha (female monkey, riding a bull)
Artist
India, Rajasthan, Jaipur School
Physical Description
Two figures, Anjana and a bull are depicted centrally in the image. The background is very simple with some grass tufts and a pond near the very bottom of the images. Near the top of the image in the background there some trees and sky are visible.
Lakshmi lustrated by elephants (Gaja Lakshmi (Goddess))
Artist
India, Rajasthan, Bundi School
Physical Description
The white elephants, which draw the eye into the image, face toward the center leading the viewer to Lakshmi who is the central figure in the frame. The image is bordered by a red colored frame. And below the figures, in the background is a dark banded representing a pond.
The richly dressed sculpture in the central niche is Shri Nathaji, an alternative name for Krishna, and the principal deity of the Vallabha Sampraday sect, to which the Kotah ruling family belonged. A priest is shown performing the lamp-waving ceremony before Shri Nathaji. At right is a small costumed sculpture of Krishna playing the flute.
