Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India - Softcover

Pratapaditya Pal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500278709 ISBN 13: 9780500278703

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 1999

Synopsis

Jainism originates in India where it has been practised since the 6th century BC. The Jains have produced a diverse range of art that has been little known in the West. This volume is illustrated with examples from all ages, offering a comprehensive introduction to the art of the Jains and an insight into the practices, principles and beliefs of the religion. Pratapaditya Pal describes the different forms of art produced in each period: temples and shrines, wood, stone and bronze, illuminated manuscripts, monumental cloth paintings, architectural reliefs and votive tablets. The volume also includes an examination of Jain ritual and philosophical thought, an entertaining account of Jain pilgrimages and overviews of Jain cosmological painting and manuscript illustration.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Jainism, a major religion of India with six million adherents, emphasizes nonviolence, liberation from the cycle of rebirth, strict vegetarianism, modest living and acts of devotion. Despite the Jains' ideal of nonattachment to the physical world, their cosmographic paintings, sculptures, elegant temples, architectural reliefs and domestic shrines include works of imaginative splendor, as revealed in this wide-ranging catalogue of a traveling exhibition, which combines 229 illustrations, 88 in color, with eminently readable essays. Led by Pal, a senior curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the exhibit opened, a team of Indian, American, British and Canadian scholars describe Jain ritual and worship, retrace Jain pilgrimages since the fifth century and investigate parallels and differences between Jain and Hindu philosophies.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0500278709
• ISBN 13: 9780500278703
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 279