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Lot 1860

Two miniature paintings

Estimated Value:

600 € - 1.000 €

Schätzpreis:

3.000 €

Description:

Norther India, ca. 19th c.
12 x 7,8 und 27,4 x 42 cm
I: The imprint of the hands of gods and saints is common in the religious practice of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains alike. In Hindu traditions, it is mainly the imprints of the hands (Sanskrit: hastakārayantra) of the god Viṣṇu that are depicted in painting. Auspicious symbols associated with the deity are depicted on the back of the hand. The symbols shown here, including elephant, bull, temple, sun and moon as well as royal banners, cannot be assigned to any particular deity and have auspicious meanings in a rather general sense. At the bottom of the picture is a lotus pond, which, together with the blue ground colour of the hands, suggests a Viṣṇuit context. II: Five jinas are depicted in a sitting and standing posture against a green background. All the jinas are unclothed, so the painting is presumably in the context of the Digambara direction of Jainism, whose monks, as "air-clothed", dispense with monastic robes and go naked. The crescent moon in the lower part of the painting symbolises the place of the redeemed souls (Sanskrit: siddhaloka), which according to Jain tradition is located at the apex of the universe. These are therefore those Jinas who have attained final redemption after their death. The paradisiacal place where they have dwelled since then is thought to be a heavenly garden, which is indicated by the flowering plants.
From an important private collection in northern Germany, collected mainly in India from the early 1950s to the 1980s