Nick Barnard, curator of the Jainpedia display  at the V&A began the day with a presentation on Jain manuscript iconography, style and behind the scenes stories of Jain manuscripts not on display at the museum.

Thereafter, Mike Wheeler, the senior paper conservator explained the analysis of pigments in manuscripts and identifying any damage to them. The visitors were most fascinated when he showed this to them practically allowing them to see the raw mineral pigments.

The afternoon was commented to be the highlight of the day, with 15 visitors going to the Shikharbandhi Temple in Potters Bar. Arshna Sanghrajka gave an inspirational tour of the temple and its grounds, including a clear account of Jain principles and worship.  The beauty of the temple was appreciated immensely.

 A positively received event in general; ‘I enjoyed the visit to the Potters Bar temple and access to manuscripts in Storage’ (Inside Outing event visitor)

• story-telling sessions by highly acclaimed story-teller Seema Anand
• hourly tours of the JAINpedia display
• a drop-in craft workshop for children organised by the British Library
• a beautiful dance recital in the Bharat Natyam dance form, performed by founders of the Prakruti Dance School.

Here is the programme for the day:

Look out for our volunteers in their bright orange JAINpedia t-shirts and they can help you find your way to any of the above activities.

Join us for a fun-filled day for you and your family – we look forward to celebrating Mahavir Jayanti with all of you!

Jain artefacts in the Sacred Texts display at the British Library © Institute of Jainology

The temporary display of ‘Jain Sacred Texts’ at the British Library began on 8th October 2010. The display highlights some of the most important collections of Jain manuscripts outside India.

The earliest specimen in the display is from the Jītakalpasūtra, a very rare manuscript on palm leaf, which is only one of the two existing in the British Library. The manuscript, dated 1201, is in the Prakrit language, in Devanagari script.

The entire display consists of approximately 40 objects from across the Library’s Jain collection. It includes pages from the Saṃgrahaṇīratna, the Kalpasūtra, the Uttarādhyayanasūtra and, very interestingly, the Ādityavaravratakatha. This last is a Jain story from the Digambara sect, the only manuscript from this sect in the display. Finally, the love story of Prince Ḍhola and the maiden Māru is also illustrated. Being fond of all types of stories, Jain monks made it their own even though it is considered to be a Rajasthani folk tale.

The IoJ recently published the book Jain Tales, with original artwork by Kamini Gupta, and text by Colin Hynson. The book has been designed for young readers, giving them an insight into the Jain religion, ethics and principles through stories that illustrate the Jain teachings. The launch of this book adds to the entry-level book, Discover Jainism, which is part of the English religious education curriculum.

We look forward to seeing more of you at the next event at the British Library on 15th April 2011. This event will be held to celebrate Mahavir Jayanti, a Jain festival celebrating the birth of Mahavira. Look out for more details of this FREE event!

We’d just like to remind you that there are special Diwali events this weekend at the V&A in South Kensington, London.

You can:

• see rangoli demonstrations both days
• take part in a JAINpedia digital treasure hunt on Sunday
• listen to the storyteller and watch the dancers bring the tales to life on Sunday.

All the events are free, though they will be popular!

And of course you can marvel at the beautiful exhibits in the free display of Jain manuscripts in the Nehru Gallery.

Enjoy!

Consisting of around 40 striking objects from the library’s Jain collection, the display appears in the rotating Sacred Texts permanent exhibition in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, also known as the Treasures Gallery of the British Library.

The illustrated pages are displayed in different sections – Worship and Meditation, Lives of the Jinas, the Jain Universe and Jain Stories.

As well as two rare palm-leaf folios from the Jita-kalpa-sutra, the exhibition contains paintings of scenes such as:

• worship of Sarasvatī
• Śāntinatha, the 16th Jina, in meditation
• worship of the Jina Pārśvanatha
• 14 auspicious dreams
• enlightenment of a Jina.

Entry to the British Library is free and you can look at the display along with other treasures of the library completely free seven days a week.

Events at the British Library

To complement the display a series of events to celebrate Mahavir Jayanthi will take place in April 2011. These events will include a family craft workshop, storytelling in the gallery and a lunch-time recital. There will also be a reception in March 2011. All events will be free and drop-in so you don’t need to book.

For further information about the events contact rajiv.anand@jainpedia.org

The British Library

The United Kingdom’s national library, the British Library is one of the leading global research libraries.  The British Library holds well over 150 million items, in most known languages from a multitude of cultures around the world. As well as visiting the landmark twentieth-century building in central London for free, you can also explore large parts of its collections online.

The British Library has very large holdings of Jain manuscripts, many sold or bequeathed by eminent scholars of the past. With such a large collection, choosing the cream of the illustrated pages for the display was a difficult task but the JAINpedia team is extremely pleased with the results. You can read full details of pages displayed in this exhibition on the forthcoming JAINpedia website.

We hope to see lots of you in the Treasures Gallery over the next few months.

Nick’s specialist Curator Talk will be held in the Victoria and Albert Museum‘s Hochhauser Auditorium to accompany the launch of JAINpedia – an ambitious project digitising Jain manuscripts in the UK.

The talk will explore finely illustrated Jain manuscript pages on display in the Nehru Gallery of Indian art at the V&A till December 2012.  Dating from the 15th to 19th centuries, these beautiful manuscripts were preserved in temple libraries in India before arriving at the V&A. The V&A’s collection includes examples in a range of styles, some never displayed before.

When?

The talk starts at 1.15pm and finishes at 2pm on Wednesday 3 November 2010.

Where?

The Hochhauser Auditorium at the V&A in South Kensington, London.

Who?

Nick Barnard, Curator of South Asian art in the Asian Department

How much?

It’s free and you can just go along without booking.

More information

You can find out more about the talk and other lunch-time events at the museum from the V&A website.

We are very happy that the exhibition will feature 20 beautiful artefacts of Jain art, including folios from manuscripts, manuscript covers and large paintings. The themes of the exhibition will be the Jain universe, the Jinas and their disciples and monastic rules and morals.

The free exhibition will be open until the end of 2012 and there will be a programme of events running alongside. Look at Rajiv’s post on 5th January for some more information about these. Doubtless, he’ll be reminding you of these events and activities as they approach.

Curator’s talk

Rules of conduct for monks (detail), Uttarādhyayanasūtra, opaque watercolour on paper, Gujarat, India, about 1450. © V&A Images / Victoria and Albert Museum, London

One of the opening events will be a talk by Nick Barnard, Curator of South Asian art in the Asian Department. The talk takes place on Thursday 20th May at 1pm. Lasting under an hour, it’s free and will involve walking round the gallery looking at some of the Jain artefacts on display.

Jainpedia preview

Visitors to the exhibition will also have the chance to explore a special edition of the Jainpedia website, created specifically to support the items they will see in the gallery.

Though it won’t be a full version of the website, it will demonstrate some of the functionality and give a good idea of our approach to showcasing and contextualising these wonderful pieces of art and religion. You can think of it as a kind of preview of the website proper, though the full Jainpedia will have many more bells and whistles along with substantially more material.

The V&A and Jain art

One of the premier museums in the world, the V&A is world famous for the depth and breadth of its collections, its curatorial expertise and its innovative, fascinating exhibitions. They have a particularly rich Asian section, with South Asian artefacts displayed chiefly in the Nehru Gallery and surrounding rooms. The Jain collection is one of the most exquisite and important in the UK, with some significant items on long-term display.

Some of you may remember the exhibition The Peaceful Liberators – Jain Art from India, which opened at the V&A in 1995. This was a pioneering international exhibition of Jain art. The V&A website boasts a very good section on Jainism, which uses videos and personal testimonies, as well as text and interactive features.

The Jainpedia team is extremely pleased that the V&A has agreed to put on this exhibition to complement the Jainpedia website and we hope to see lots of you at the exhibition over the next eighteen months or so.

You will be able to start appreciating the beauty of these artefacts in these small photos.

Manuscripts

A manuscript is made up of a number of folios. A folio is a sheet of paper or other material that has writing and sometimes an illustration on each side of the sheet. Each folio bears the handwriting of a scribe who used ink to write by hand. Many of the folios are also painted in full colour.

Kālakācāryakathā © Wellcome Library, London

For most of the manuscripts we’ll be displaying on the forthcoming full Jainpedia website, each page (one side of the sheet) has been photographed. Sometimes a manuscript will consist of only one or two folios, because of its age, its material or the conditions in which it was kept before being held in a professional curated environment.

Manuscripts on Jainpedia

The full Jainpedia website will display high-quality images of folios and artefacts such as statues that are much larger. You’ll also be able to zoom into areas of the photos that interest you.

Aḍhāīdvīpa © Wellcome Library, London

We are preparing full information about each image, such as the shelfmark of the holding institution, original language and the author where known. To help you understand what you see, we will also offer translations, transcriptions and detail about the illustrations and the whole manuscript for selected images.

This is the unique feature of Jainpedia. Images of some manuscripts and artefacts are available on several websites but  we are proud to state that our plans for detailed commentary on hundreds of significant items plus an encyclopaedia of Jainism that provides in-depth context for these beautiful photos will make Jainpedia an unprecedentedly rich and comprehensive online resource.

After months of planning and preparation, we now have a portion of the thousands of images that we’ll be bringing to you through the full Jainpedia site and it feels very real and exciting!

I’m looking forward to receiving your thoughts on the sample images.

I am looking forward to begin this challenging and exciting journey and I will be sharing with you the stages of the development of the Jainpedia website.

Watch this space!