Description

This is the front side of the manuscript holder. The pages are placed inside. The two parts of the cover are different sizes. The front cover measures 25 x 6.5 cms.

Both the outside and the inner sides are painted. Manuscript holders have no regular illustration theme but they tend to have either auspicious symbols or scenes of the Jain community. Such scenes are meant to underline the unity of the community by depicting its different members.

Outer painting

The gallery of a house or palace is shown in eight small panels. In each are ladies or men with folded hands, or pairs of figures. In one of them a lady’s hand gesture shows that she is paying homage to a Śvetāmbara monk, who seems to wear the mouth-cloth.

To the left, the style of the flower recalls what can be seen in Mughal miniatures or on the Taj Mahal.

Inner painting

In the middle five white-clad persons are shown, holding something that could be a book or a white piece of cloth. They are Śvetāmbara monks.

On the left side are women in colourful clothes. Their hands are folded in respect. They mean to pay homage to the monks, although they only see the mendicants‘ backs. The monks are turned towards the large group of men shown on the right side. They look like well-off merchants or princes, and wear turbans. One of them is seated in a horse-drawn carriage, and is leaving the scene.

These women and men represent the Jain lay community – śrāvakas and śrāvikās – who have come to show their devotion to the monks, who represent the Jain teaching.