पर्युषणकल्पसूत्र- Paryusana Kalpasutra- An Illustrated Prakrit Manuscript

The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, is known all the world over for its valuable collection of manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have been published by the Institute and there are some awaiting publication for want of financial assistance. Among these there was one of the Kalpasutra which is profusely illustrated. The manuscript, dated 1458 CE, is perhaps the oldest paper manuscript of the text in the collection. We were since long hoping to edit and publish it properly Fortunately Smt. Paulomi Abhyankar-wife of Dr. R. M. Abhyankar, IFS (retired), exmember of our Executive Board-came to our rescue. On Smt. Abhyankar's request, her mother, Smt. Pushpa Bhansali, offered to finance the publication of the Kalpasutra with a munificent grant to mark the 39th death anniversary of Dr. Kirtilal M. Bhansali on 21 November 2011. We are deeply beholden to the donor and the Abhyankars.

The work of editing was assigned to both of us, with Prof. M. K. Dhavalikar writing the Introduction and identification of the illustrations and Dr. Shreenand Bapat dealing with editing and translation of the text. Prof. R. P. Poddar was requested to deliver this year's (2011) R.G Bhandarkar Death Anniversary Address on the significance of the Paryusuna, which has been included in this book. He has also read the entire text of the work and made useful suggestions. We are grateful to Prof. Poddar for his contribution.

We are thankful to Dr. Kamalkumar K. Jain and Smt. Amruta Natu of the Prakrit Dictionary Project of the Institute for their assistance in reading proofs of the text and translation of the manuscript.

In the publication of the manuscript we have received constant help from Dr. Maitreyee Deshpande, the Secretary of the Institute and Shri. S. J. Rajarshi, Office Superintendent. We must record our thanks to them.

The design and layout of the publication has been gracefully done by Shri. Chandrashekhar Dere and Smt. Aparna Joshi. The printing has been very meticulously executed by Vyoma Graphics. Our sincere thanks to all of them.

The art of painting in India has a hoary antiquity. The earliest paintings belong to the Upper Palaeolithic period (40000 to 15000 years before present) which is found in the natural caves and rock-shelters in the Narmada valley in Central India. They are about 25000 years old as is evident from the painting of an ostrich in a rock shelter at Kathuria (Madhya Pradesh). Ostrich is the bird of desert and its eggs have turned up in the excavation at Patne (District Jalgaon, Maharashtra) which have been radiocarbon-dated to 25000 years before present. It was only during the Upper Palaeolithic period that the bird was present in India, neither before nor after, as the climate then was extremely arid The following Mesolithic phase is characterized by favourable environment when plant and animal food was plentifully available without much effort, and man had enough leisure to give expression to his artistic inclinations. We therefore have numerous Mesolithic paintings at several sites in the country. Since then Indians have made considerable progress culminating in the magnificent murals at Ajanta which are about 1500 - 2000 years old. The influence of Ajanta reached beyond the frontiers of India in Afghanistan, and as far east as China through Central Asia.

The Ajanta tradition continued at Ellora in Cave 16 (Kailasa) where there are layers of paintings in the verandah of the main temple, the lowermost of which belongs to the ninth century and the uppermost to the tenth century when the Rastrakuta-s were ruling in the Deccan. Again at Ellora itself there are paintings in the Jaina group of caves (Nos. 31-34) which are presently being chemically cleaned. However, the earliest Jaina paintings in the country are to be found in the Khandagiri-Udayagiri caves, near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa, which belong to the centuries around the Common Era, and are almost contemporary of those in Ajanta caves 9 and 10 (Hinayana group). They belong to the Digambara sect of the Jainas, but are in a very bad state of preservation because of the fragile nature of the rock: khondolite. We do not know how true is the story of the large scale migration of the followers of Jainism to South India along with Candragupta Maurya when there was a devastating famine in north India during his reign about 300 BCE. But for the Orissan evidence, all ancient Jaina painting is confined to South India. The Sittanivasal paintings belong to the Pallava period in the 6th-7th centuries CE. The Pallava monarch. Mahendravarman (600-630 CE), was a very able ruler, deeply interested in art, music and literature. One of his titles was Citrakarapuli, meaning "tiger among painters," and he is also said to be the author of the Daksinacitra, a treatise on painting In the Jaina temple at Tirumalai (Tamilnadu) there are two layers of paintings of which the earlier depicts deities, gandharva-s, kinnara-s etc. On the basis of epigraphic evidence they can be assigned to the 10th-11th centuries CE The upper layer shows Digambara Jaina monks, seated and preaching to a woman who is offering food to them.

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