The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 21, 2025
Folio 13 from a Kalpa-sutra: Transfer of the Embryo (recto); Transfer of the Embryo (verso)
1465
Overall: 11.7 x 29.5 cm (4 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.)
Location: Not on view
Description
The paintings on this page illustrate the text describing the unusual circumstances of the early gestation of Mahavira. He had been conceived in the womb of a Brahman woman of the orthodox Hindu priest class, shown reclining twice on this page. In the upper register, a goat-headed divinity gently takes the golden embryo of Mahavira away in his raised hands. He had been sent by the king of the gods, who mandated that a teacher of the new religion be born of a queen. In the lower register, the divinity brings the queen’s embryo to the Brahman woman in exchange.- The Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
- {{cite web|title=Folio 13 from a Kalpa-sutra: Transfer of the Embryo (recto); Transfer of the Embryo (verso)|url=false|author=|year=1465|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/17.2014