The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Transfer of the embryo, folio 13 from a Kalpa-sutra (recto)

1465

Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Jaunpur

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 11.7 x 29.5 cm (4 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.)
On Loan from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 17.2014.a
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
  • Text and Image in Southern Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-March 5, 2023).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 2, 2014–January 5, 2015).
  • {{cite web|title=Transfer of the embryo, folio 13 from a Kalpa-sutra (recto)|url=false|author=|year=1465|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/17.2014.a