TY  - BOOK
AU  - Jack Laughlin
PY  - 2021
CY  - Lausanne, Switzerland
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
SN  - 0172-3375
TI  - Ārādhakamūrti/Adhiṣṭhāyakamūrti  – «Popular Piety, Politics, and the Medieval Jain Temple Portrait»
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1096705
N2  - Many aspects of Medieval Western Indian temple art have been the subject of scholarly attention. One type of temple-image which has been identified but heretofore unstudied is the portrait. This study brings together evidence of more than 200 images of historical lay people and ascetics from the medieval temples of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The author emphasizes Jain specimens, but also includes a number of notable Hindu examples. However, it is the evidence of the Jain portraits that is by far the most significant. This book provides some startling insights into the beliefs and practices of the Śvetāmbara sect of Jainism in a period from about the 12th to 17th centuries. The analysis of lay portraits illuminates some very significant  episodes in this period of Jain history. The discussion of monks’  portraits presents much that is contrary to expectation. Evidence indicates  that even Jain monks donated portraits of other monks. This is surprising  since gifting is a practice commonly thought to be a lay prerogative and not  allowed to ascetics. The reasons for these monastic donations are discussed  and investigated, and reveal that the worldview of medieval Jain monks was  often something very different from that portrayed in much of Jain  scholarship to date.
KW  - Gujarat, Tempel, Jainismus, Bildnisplastik, Popular Piety, Medieval Jain Temple Portrait, History of Religion, Iconography, Spiritualism, Politics, Indian Religion
LA  - English
ER  -