The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London have created an exhibition to accompany thelaunch of JAINpedia (until 31 December) – an ambitious project digitising Jainmanuscripts in the UK. This small display shows illustrated Jain manuscriptpages from the 15th to 19th centuries. Manuscripts were mainly preserved intemple libraries, however, the V&A’s collection includes examples in arange of styles, some never displayed before.The museum has one of the mostimportant permanent collections of Jain art in the UK, including sculptures andpaintings.
Jainism is one ofthe major religions to originate in India, along with Hinduism and Buddhism,and has been continuously practised there since at least the 6th century BC andis comparitively unknown outside India, despite its rich artistic tradition. Anartistic heritage spanning a period of over 2,000 years comprises anastonishing variety of sculpture, paintings, ritual objects and textiles. TheJains, despite their rigorous ideal of non-attachment to the material world,have produced a cultural heritage rich in its imaginative splendour.
JAINpedia is aproject developed by the Institute for making the important manuscripts fromthe various Jain collections in the UK accessible and understandable to laypersons. This is a massive project that will take over five years to completeand cost over £700,000. The Institute of Jainology, in partnership with King’sCollege London, has received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) todevelop the digitisation and digital dessemination of the selected Jainmanuscripts. Prof Nalini Balbir has been appointed as the Editor in Chief ofthe project. She will work with several scholars of Jainism and manusriptologyto select the manuscripts from the large collections held by the particpatingInstitutions and then proceed with creating the contextual database for eachselected manuscript. The databaseis expected to go on line to provide information in English, Hindi and Gujaratitowards the later part of 2012. During the lifetime of the project, exhibitionsof the manuscripts will be held at the regional museums, places of worships andlocal libraries. Also workshops on manuscriptology will be conducted duringthis period.
The British Libraryis also involved with the project and Jain manuscripts will br included in Treasures of the British Library in the John Ritblat Gallery this autumn. The library contains some of the mostimportant Jain manuscripts and artefacts outside of the Indian sub-continent –and boasts significant holdings of Jain material in a number of South Asianlanguages, (Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi and Gujarati) and include severalilluminated manuscripts, as well as rare palm-leaf manuscripts.
Treasures held atthe British Library exemplifying Jain religious and artistic heritage includeilluminated manuscripts of Jain religious texts such as the Kalpasutra,narrative works such as the Sripalakatha, a Jain invitation scroll and rare palm-leafmanuscripts from western India. From the collections of Prints & Drawings,paintings on cloth depicting Jain diagrams of the universe, as well as numerousimages from the rich photographic collections, gathered by British explorersand scholars during the late 18th century early 19th centuries.
For more information on JAINpedia, email info@jainology.org, www.jainology.org
