A PILGRIMAGE PATA OF THE TEMPLE-CITY SATRUNJAYA Western India, Rajasthan, circa 1900

Good and stable overall condition. The cloth painting has been placed upon a canvas backing. Abrasions and wear to extremities due to handling and folding. Losses to the cloth in a quadrant at lower left are visible in catalog illustration. Light rubbing and abrasions to pigment on the figures and the rock work particularly in the middle and lower section of the painting. Abrasions to blue pigment in shrine with elephant and lady on upper middle right and abrasions to gold pigment showing Jinas in shrine at upper right and center. Some abrasions to blue pigment on water well at upper center left.
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This monumental painting of Satrunjaya depicts an epic pilgrimage scene, in which royal soldiers, monks with the distinctive face mask and broom, aristocrats and laymen and women line the circuitous pilgrimage route, together with a riot of howdas, tongas and chariots, and a large number of animals including elephants, camels, bulls and horses. 

Located outside of Palitana in the hills of Gujarat, the temple-city of Satrunjaya is one of the most significant Jain pilgrimage sites in India. The frequent subject of Jain spiritual art, Satrunjaya is revered as the site in which Bharata, the son of the first Jina Rishabhanatha, passed away and attained nirvana. The hundreds of temples at Satrunjaya cover the hillside above Palitana and are visible in the current work, created in first half of the 19th Century. 

Compare the composition with another monumental pilgrimage painting of Satrunjaya from Gujarat, see Pratapaditya Pal, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles, 1994, p. 62, cat. 117B.