Artwork Page for Text, folio 12 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra

Details / Information for Text, folio 12 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra

Text, folio 12 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra

c. 1475–1500

Western India, Gujarat

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Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Measurements
Overall: 12.5 x 25.7 cm (4 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1932.119.12.b
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

The tiny captions written in Sanskrit to the right of the painting identify the subject of this scene: “abduction of the embryo” and “transfer of the embryo.” The embryo is the unborn founder of the Jain religion.

In this miraculous episode, a goat-headed divinity who presides over miscarriage and childbirth gently takes the embryo in his cupped hands away from the reclining Brahmin lady in the scene above. Below, he carries it to a queen, who will be his birth mother.
A horizontally oriented manuscript page features dense rows of black-inked characters on cream paper. Two bold red vertical bands frame the central script, punctuated by three large, solid red circles spaced across the center. At the bottom, intricate diagrams and smaller red text appear alongside a small black number twelve in the lower right corner. The precise script and geometric accents create a rhythmic, structured composition.

Text, folio 12 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra

c. 1475–1500

Western India, Gujarat

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