Jainism (7 results)

Hardcover. Condition: ex library-good. 121 p. 21 cm. Grey cloth. Ex library with labels on spine and pastedowns, ink stamps on top edge and title. Cloth discoloured with some marks. A few marks on text without affecting legibility. Library edition, 1100 copies. A revised edition of "The Practical Path".

Original red cloth, with (somewhat discolored) dustjacket, else in good condition. With small illustrations in the text in black and white. Please see description or ask for photos.

Reprint. Two volumes. Translated by Hermann Jacobi from Prakrit. Volume I: liii + 324pp, index. Volume II: xli + 456pp, indices. Both volumes: Upper edges somewhat foxed, paperback covers little shelf worn with spines slightly sunned, overall good copies. Reprints of Vols. 22 and 45 of The Sacred Books of the East.

Tall 4to (285 x 148 mm). 78 ff. Prakrit and Sanskrit manuscript on paper. Black Jain Nagari script ruled in red. Illustrated with 23 hand-painted miniatures, with figures painted in gold on fields of red and blue. In contemporary textile case embroidered in gold, yellow, and blue thread; housed in custom black case. Two central works of the Shvetambara Jain tradition finely illustrated in gold: the Kalpasutra ("Book of the Ritual") and the popular legend of Prince Kalaka, the Kalikacharyakatha. - The first and longest work, the Kalpasutra, is a canonical text of Jainism, and illustrated with twenty miniatures. It is divided into three sections: the stories of the twenty-four Tirthankaras ("fordmakers", who provide a ford or bridge to guide others to liberation from the cycle of birth and death), the succession of Jain leaders, and the rules to be observed by Jain monks during the festival of Paryushana. This is followed by a Sanskrit version of the Kalikacharyakatha, a much shorter work comprising just 65 verses. It tells the story of Prince Kalaka's conversion to Jainism along with his sister Sarasvati, her abduction by Gardabhilla the king of Ujjain, and her rescue with the aid of the Shakas. - The worship and recitation of the Kalpasutra is a prominent feature of the eight-day Shvetambara Jain Paryushana festival, celebrated during the monsoon season when wandering and begging for alms becomes impossible, and Jain monks temporarily settle down among the lay community. Copies of the Kalpasutra are carried in procession, and wealthy members of the community make donations for the privilege of having the Kalpasutra manuscript worshipped in their homes overnight. The association of the Kalikacharyakatha with the Kalpasutra derives from the fact that, according to Jain tradition, it was Kalaka who changed the date of the end of the Paryushana festival, adding an extra day. - Beyond its role in the Paryushana festival, the Kalpasutra has always played an important part in Jainism. The study of the sacred text was an important monastic activity, and the worship of books of sacred knowledge a central feature of Jain temple ritual. Manuscripts such as this one were frequently commissioned by Jain kings and wealthy merchants to demonstrate piety and gain spiritual merit. - Cloth case gently rubbed; subtle paper repairs to leaves, with no loss to text. In good condition. - From a French private collection, acquired in the UK, where the manuscript had been housed since the 1970s. Accompanied by an extensive description by Graham Shaw, then Head of the Asia, Pacific, and Africa Collections at the British Library. - Cf. Balbir, Nalini, et al., Catalogue of the Jain Manuscripts in the British Library (London, 2006), nos. 104/709 and 96/710. W. N. Brown, A Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of Miniature Paintings of the Jaina Kalpasutra as Executed in the Early Western Indian Style (Washington, D.C., 1934), plate 12.

Single leaf, watercolour on fibrous paper, depicting a scene from the Jain vision of hell, circa 115 x 265 mm; image framed within contemporary red painted border, reverse blank, some light finger soiling and rubbing, overall bright and attractive example; floated in modern card mount. Hell and purgatory in Jainism, called Naraka, are realms of cosmology that are characterised my great suffering. There are seven realms of this universe, that are all situated in the 'lower levels' (adho lok), and they are all inhabited by various types of hellish beings. These beings contribute to the various types of suffering one might endure in a vision of Jain hell, including bodily pain, soul colouring (as seen by the dark figures depicted thus), physical transformation and pain inflicted on one other and torture inflicted by mansion-dwelling demi-gods and animals (such as the demons, snakes and scorpions depicted in these illustrations). Illustrations such as these would have been included with Jain manuscripts and their purpose would have been to warn the readers of evil and the effects of bad Karma on the eternal soul.

1 leaf, with only a short text on the reverse. 441 x 225 mm. Painting and manuscript on paper in red, yellow, and black ink. A distinctive vision of the cosmos: this intricate red and yellow diagram is immediately recognizable as carefully hand-painted depiction of the Jain universe. Shaped like a human being whose silhouette takes roughly the form of an hourglass, the visual, human element of the Jain cosmos is melded beautifully here with its mathematical detail. Every depiction of the Jain cosmos adheres to a basic structure: the heavenly and hellish realms above and below, with the middle world and Mount Meru at the centre of it all. In this case, the 'cosmic man' is simply implied by the geometric forms of the diagram, present but not realized. The viewer's attention is instead drawn to the mathematical underpinnings of the cosmos, with its dimensions carefully noted along the sides of the figure. Jainism's interest in mapping the universe and the space of the world itself resulted in some of the most interesting mathematical leaps forward in the history of science, including one of the earliest uses of the number zero (the possibility of which was dismissed by the Ancient Greeks and only later adopted by the Tang Chinese) in the Lokavibhaga, the main Jain cosmological text. Few faiths have such a distinct artistic culture around depictions of the cosmos, or as thorough a system for calculating the exact size and volume of the universe. Both aspects are demonstrated here. - With folding creases, one large tear to a fold, otherwise in good condition, bright and clean. - From a Northern German private collection, assembled mainly in India from the early 1950s to the 1980s.

16 leaves, watercolours on fibrous paper, each depicting a scene from the Jain vision of heaven or hell, each circa 115 x 265 mm; each image framed within red painted border, reverses blank, some light finger soiling and rubbing, overall bright and attractive examples; paired into two groups of 8, each mounted and framed under glass. Hell and purgatory in Jainism, called Naraka, are realms of cosmology that are characterised by great suffering. There are seven realms of this universe, that are all situated in the 'lower levels' (adho lok), and they are all inhabited by various types of hellish beings. These beings contribute to the various types of suffering one might endure in a vision of Jain hell, including bodily pain, soul colouring (as seen by the dark figures depicted thus), physical transformation and pain inflicted on one other and torture inflicted by mansion-dwelling demi-gods and animals (such as the demons, snakes and scorpions depicted in these illustrations). Illustrations such as these would have been included with Jain manuscripts and their purpose would have been to warn the viewers of evil and the effects of bad Karma on the eternal soul.