Jain manuscript painting flourished in western India over several centuries. Which period appears to be its most creative phase?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → 14th–15th century
Option (1) 10th–12th century — Incorrect. This is the early palm-leaf phase. The earliest surviving palm leaf manuscript of western India dates back to the eleventh century.
Option (2) 13th–14th century — Incorrect. Paper came in only in the fourteenth century. The most creative phase began around 1350 and ran on into the fifteenth century.
Option (3) 14th–15th century — Correct. The roughly hundred years from about 1350–1450 fall across the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In this phase, landscape, dancers and musicians were painted in the margins of the folio.
Option (4) 16th–17th century — Incorrect. These centuries saw the indigenous style of the sixteenth century and the early Rajasthani paintings of the seventeenth, not the high point of Jain painting.
NCERT (2026-27): “Western Indian School of Painting …A period of roughly hundred years from about 1350–1450 appears to be the most creative phase for Jain paintings. One observes a shift from severely iconic representations to inclusion of attractively depicted aspects of landscape, figures in dance poses, musicians playing instruments, which are painted in the margins of the folio around the main episode.” |