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Lot Essay
The story tells of a Jain monk and a nun, a prince and a merchant whose adventures are setting for moral tales. In these paintings, the monk and the nun hold a broom to sweep in front of them as they walk. The prince and the merchant try to appropriate by means of persuasion and force the gold water vessels carried by the monk and nun. These vessels are symbolic of one of the three jewels of the Jain path to liberation: right, knowledge, right faith and right conduct.
The style of these paintings is similar to the Gem Palace Ragamala in the National Museum in Delhi and the Sursagar in the Kanoria Collection in Calcuta, both of which were probably painted by the artist of the Chitor Ramayana executed in 1651. Although the format is clearly drawn from Hindu and Jain traditions, the dress of the merchant and the prince are influenced by Mughal portraiture.
No other copy of this text is known and Jain manuscripts produced in Mewar are very rare. Two other leaves of this manuscripts are in the Los Angeles County Museum and in the San Diego Museum of Art (Pal, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles, 1995, no 94; Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, Archer and Binney, 1968, no 4).
The style of these paintings is similar to the Gem Palace Ragamala in the National Museum in Delhi and the Sursagar in the Kanoria Collection in Calcuta, both of which were probably painted by the artist of the Chitor Ramayana executed in 1651. Although the format is clearly drawn from Hindu and Jain traditions, the dress of the merchant and the prince are influenced by Mughal portraiture.
No other copy of this text is known and Jain manuscripts produced in Mewar are very rare. Two other leaves of this manuscripts are in the Los Angeles County Museum and in the San Diego Museum of Art (Pal, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles, 1995, no 94; Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, Archer and Binney, 1968, no 4).