Preface | Robert J. Del Bontà

To date there have been only a few major exhibitions of Jain art including The Peaceful Liberators at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1994; Steps to Liberation at the Etnografisch Museum in Antwerp, Belgium in 2000; and Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City in 2009. Each exhibition was represented by catalogs that covered a wide expanse of time periods and styles. Pieces from the collection of Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali were featured in the two U.S. exhibitions; however, this publication focuses solely on this remarkable collection, and publishes many of its holdings for the first time. The Jain sculptures and paintings from the Bhansali Collection featured here cover as broad a spectrum of styles and periods as did these major exhibitions.

This essay focuses on selected works from the Bhansali Collection and intends to give a sense of the richness of art produced for members of the Jain faith from the third through the nineteenth centuries. The material featured here includes examples from many areas where Jains maintained a historical presence. Now, Jains live in many parts of India, but their main concentrations are in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in Karnataka in the south. Representations of the spiritual teachers and exemplars of the faith, known as Jinas—translated as conquerors or spiritual victors—first developed in the Mathura region in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (Plate 1) then spread east and west before moving south. The word Jain can be translated as “pertaining to the Jina.”

The Course of the Moon, folio from a Samgrahanisutra manuscript Catalog no. 53

Pancatirtha of Rishabha, the 1st Tirthankara, an Ensemble with Five Jinas Catalog no. 34