Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology (LD Museum), Ahmedabad, India
Location History:
Painted at Agra, India
This painting is known as Vijnaptipatra scroll of 1610, which documents Jahangir's issuance of an imperial decree prohibiting the killing of animals during the Jain festival of Paryushana. It is made by Ustad Salivahanan, who was a Mughal court painter and worked in the imperial atelier of Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–1627). This work is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most historically significant painted documents of its kind. The scroll is approximately 13 feet long and 13 inches broad. It is an elaborate, illustrated invitation letter sent by Jain communities to their ecclesiastical heads during the Paryushana-Parva, the holiest Jain festival. The written portion comprises 76 lines of text in Gujarati with admixtures of contemporary Hindi. The text records that in 1610, two Jain monks, Vivekaharsha and Udayaharsha, led a deputation along with Raja Ramadasa to Jahangir's court at Agra and secured an imperial decree renewing the prohibition on animal slaughter during the eight days of Paryushana. As the letter itself states, "The Emperor is seated on the balcony. Raja Ramadasa introduced the deputation led by Pandit Vivekaharsha, behind whom was Pandit Udayaharsha. The Emperor accepted our prayer and issued a Farman, which was duly proclaimed. Ustad Salivahan, the court painter, has painted the scenes as he saw them and sends his greetings.” The scroll depicts a series of tableaux in the approved style of Mughal painting, with figures labelled in black ink. Jahangir is shown receiving a glass of wine while seated at his jharoka (balcony window). Prince Khurram (the future Shah Jahan) stands on the left. Raja Ramadasa presents the farman, while the Jain sadhu urges his prayer .
Art historian Pramod Chandra, in his landmark study "Ustad Salivahana and the Development of Popular Mughal Style", situated Salivahana's work within the emergence of a "popular Mughal style" which is a mode of painting that operated on the margins of the imperial workshop and engaged broader, non-courtly audiences. The original text of the Vijnaptipatra records that "Salivahana himself seems to have been a pious man, as he too has sent his humble greetings to the Acharya Vijayasen Suri". This personal gesture of reverence to the Jain pontiff strongly suggests that Salivahana was himself of the Jain faith, or at minimum was deeply sympathetic to Jain religious practice. The use of the honorific "Ustad" (master) indicates his recognised professional status at the Mughal court.
The beauty of the painted document lies in the amount of history it holds. It is also an important depiction of the way the decrees of the Mughals were recorded. In this particular case their secularism is made known by the way Emperor Jahangir had passed the decree prohibiting the killing of animals on the Jain festival of Paryushana, as the Jain religions ideals held that it was a sin to hurt even an ant.
