रूपमण्डन एवं देवमूर्त्ति-प्रकरणम् (मण्डन सूत्रधार - प्राचीन मूर्तिकला एवं देव-प्रतिमा लक्षण सटीक)

[ 20 ] The Buddha-pratimā-lakṣaṇam is preserved also in a Chinese version.⁵⁸ We thus have three versions of this Śilpa text— the original Sanskrit, the Tibetan and the Chinese Translations, for comparison. But the Jainas preceded the Buddhists in the adoption of an iconolatrous cult. Very probably, the artistic study, for representation, of the undraped human body, originated with the Nirgrantha and the Ājīvika ascetics, who went about naked and had daily chances for observing the natural bodily forms, in course of their ascetic practices ⁵⁹ Indeed, the Jainas contributed, from early times, very considerably to the develop- ment of the plastic and the graphic arts of India.⁶⁰ Though the Buddhists as well as the Jainas have made important contributions to art the Brāhmaṇic art traditions—as contained in the Śilpa-śāstras, are perhaps much earlier. The Vāstu-śāstras and its subsidiary branch the Śilpa-śāstras have been generally included into one of the Upavedas— the Artha-śāstra, by Madhusūdana Sarasvatī⁶¹:—

to prepare for my personal use a Nāgarī transcription of this important Text and its Ceylonese Commentary. This learned monk has also undertaken to transcribe in Nāgarī, for my use, the two remaining chapters of the Sāriputra, as also the Rūpāvalī. I am preparing to publish critical editions of these important Texts of Buddhistic Art in near future. 58. See Haridas Mitra : Op. cit., Appendix : Tsao-siang-tou-leang- king. 59a. See Berthold Laufer : Op. cit., Einleitung. Seit 8 und Seit 17. 59b. The present writer, owes it to the kindness of the learned Muni Jina-vijayajī, the information regarding the existence of a single Jaina Śilpa Canon. It is in a fragmentary state of preservation and in MS. The Authorship of the Work is ascribed to Thakkar Ph(F)eru. 60. Full discussions of these questions have been given in my Contributions to (the study of) Indian Iconometry, in course of publication. 61. Madhusūdana Sarasvatī : Prasthāna-bheda. (Ed., T. Subraya Śāstrī, Mangalore).