Miniature Painting in Western India

Before the time of the miniature paintings in India of the Rajput and Mughal styles, which date from the late sixteenth century on, there have been found in that country only two styles of miniatures. One of these flourished in Nepal and northern Bengal, with dated specimens starting in the eleventh century; the other in western India (Gujarat, Kathiawar, Rajputana), and is now known to have existed in the early twelfth century. These two schools of painting seem to have had no relationship with each other, except as they both derive from a common older Indian tradition. That of eastern India exists chiefly in Buddhist books; that of western India mainly in manuscripts of the Svetämbara (“White-clothed”) division of the religious sect of the Jains, with a few highly interesting examples reported in secular and in Vaishnava Hindu texts. The style has been variously called “Jaina,” “Svetämbara Jaina,” and “Gujarat“; perhaps the best designation would be “Western Indian.”