The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Transfer of the Embryo of Mahavira, Folio 12 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra
c. 1475–1500
Overall: 12.5 x 25.7 cm (4 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.)
Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1932.119.12.a
Location: not on view
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 the birth mother.
- ?–1932(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1932–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Paintings of Bikaner – Indian Gallery 242 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 7, 2019-April 5, 2020).
- {{cite web|title=Transfer of the Embryo of Mahavira, Folio 12 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra|url=false|author=|year=c. 1475–1500|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1932.119.12.a