Page 235 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

PROPERTY OF A SOUTH AMERICAN COLLECTOR
497
A PAINTING OF A PURUSHKARA YANTRA
INDIA, RAJASTHAN OR GUJARAT, 18TH CENTURY
34Ω x 29¬ in. (87.6 x 75.2 cm.)
$6,000-8,000
PROVENANCE:
Christie's New York, 17 October 2001, lot 204.

This richly detailed painting is a yantra, a spiritual diagram made to aid
meditation or prayer. While the yantra has tantric origins, it was incorporated
into Jainism circa 1000-1300 CE. This form of the yantra depicts a map
of the universe in the form of a cosmic person, a common subject of later
Jain painting. The map shows the jinas on the face of the cosmic being, the
heavenly realms on the chest, the earthly realm on the central disk, and the
lower, hellish realms on the lower half of the body. The central circle depicts
Jambudvipa, the continent of the woodapple tree, with the cosmic Mount Meru
(or Sumeru) at its center. This central realm is dwarfed by the many layers
of heaven and hell, suggesting the rarity and significance of being human.
While the denizens of the heavens know pleasure, and the dwellers of hell
know suffering, only residents of Jambudvipa can know both and thus attain
enlightenment. Diagrams like this allow the worshipper to see the parallels
between the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the university,
inviting contemplation of its incomprehensible vastness. For a comparable
work, see P. Pal, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, p. 231, cat. 103.

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