Collection Online as of February 2, 2023

Painting from a Kalpa-sutra: Indra Praises the Embryo of Mahavira in the Womb of the Brahman Woman Devananda

c. 1450–75

Western India, Gujarat

Gum tempera and gold on paper; 18th century gold flecked paper border

Image: 9.5 x 6.8 cm (3 3/4 x 2 11/16 in.); Page: 22.3 x 17.7 cm (8 3/4 x 6 15/16 in.)

Gift of J. H. Wade 1925.1339

Location

242B Indian Painting

Fun Fact

The four-armed king of the gods, Indra, got off his throne to kneel in praise of the conception of the 24th Jina Mahavira.

Description

Until recently, and especially during the 1800s and early 1900s, the paintings in South Asian manuscripts were excised and mounted as individual works of art. These two paintings from a Jain manuscript of the Kalpa-sutra have been separated from the text and mounted with gold-flecked borders, like pictures in an album.

Provenance

?–1925

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy [1877–1947], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1925–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Vinaya Sagar, Mahopadhyaya, Makund Lath, and Chandramani Singh. Kalpasūtra: eighth chapter of the Daśāśrutaskandha of Bhadrabāhu, with Hindi and English versions and coloured reproductions of original 16th century miniatures. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati, 1977.

Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. Reproduced and mentioned: cat. no. 4i, p. 14.

Exhibition history

Indian Gallery 242 Rotation – April-November 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 10-November 6, 2017).

Text and Image in Southern Asia (Indian Painting and Himalayan rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-March 5, 2023).