Jain Paintings and Material Culture of Medieval Western India: 1100-1650

Through a curated collection of key Jain paintings, this volume offers a glimpse into the way people lived in western India during the medieval times: What they wore, how they ornamented themselves, what they amused themselves with, what furniture they sat on, which modes of transport they used. It includes Jain paintings from various collections in India and abroad to underscore the value of pictorial evidence in piecing together the past.

The book takes the reader on a breath-taking visual journey through the varied costumes, exquisite textiles, handcrafted ornaments, curiously shaped vessels and containers, musical instruments, arms and armour, conveyances, and many such articles of everyday use. These articles of everyday use are corroborated with the descriptions left by foreign travellers passing through western India at that time. It explores contemporary lexicons and vernacular literature from this period, for possible names in vogue for the articles of Material Culture. The work is richly illustrated with line drawings by the author to highlight the objects being referred to. What comes across clearly through this book is that art is the mirror of the times, and as such, paintings reflect the society in which they are created.

A magnificent read, this book will be essential for scholars and researchers of Indian painting, art history, Indian art, arts and aesthetics, Jainism, visual arts, South Asian history, Indian history, heritage studies and cultural history. It will also be a must-have for history and visual arts enthusiasts all over the world.

Lipika Maitra studied History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, receiving her Ph. D in 1995. After completing her Ph.D, she taught Cultural History to undergraduate classes at DAV College, Chandigarh for a while. Her interest in History of Indian Art began during her Ph.D., while researching Jain paintings and peaked while she was working at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada. Upon returning to India, she worked as an Academic Consultant in the regional headquarters of the Center for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), at Hyderabad for more than seven years. At CCRT, as Course Director, her work involved designing and conducting various cultural training courses for in-service Govt. school teachers. She also taught Visual Art to each batch of teacher trainees attending the training courses. At present, she is a full-time writer and frequently gives lectures on various aspects of Indian Art to interested audiences.