A Jain cosmic diagram depicting Adhaidvipa (the two-and-a-half continents), Gujarat, circa 1650

gouache on cloth, inscribed in devanagari script

Jean Claude Ciancimino (1931-2015), London
Acquired in 1967

Tantra, Hayward Gallery, London, 1971

London 1971, p.58, no.264 (reprinted 1972, p.65)

In good condition, mounted on backing, crease marks with rubbing and associated losses, old scotch marks to four corners where mounted, as viewed.
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The present patachitra depicts the Universe divided into three worlds according to the tenets of Jain philosophy. In the centre is Jambudvipa ('the Continent of the Woodapple Tree') centred on the cosmic Mount Meru.

This inner continent is surrounded by two oceans known as Lavanasamudra ('Sea of Salt') and Kalodadhi ('Black Sea'), both filled with fantastical, aquatic creatures. Skirting these bodies of water are two other continents each anchored on the left and right by Mount Meru. Together these five cosmic mountains all falling on the horizontal axis are termed Panchameru. On the vertical axis are enshrined Jinas shown within squares, flanked by human couples.

The ordered, symmetrical cosmos ends at the outermost continent known as Pushkaradvipa ('Lotus Continent') which is surrounded by a stylised red fringe. This depiction of two-and-a-half continents gives these paintings their name: Adhaidvipa.

For an earlier painting of the same subject see Pal 1995, p.223, no.98A. A very similar painting, formerly in the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck collection, is now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (inv. no.68.8.111, illustrated in Dye 2001, pp.197-8, no.67See also Talwar-Krishna 1979, p.94, no.106, pl.93 (catalogued as Gujarat, late-fifteenth century); Sotheby’s, New York, 16 September 1998, lots 232-3 (Gujarat, late-fifteenth and sixteenth centuries).