The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Horizontally oriented manuscript page with Gujarati script in black and red ink breaking around a red circle in the center. To the right of this circle an illustration cuts across the page with a red background and blue and gold detailing depicting a stylized person colored gold laying in the lower half, looking up towards three rows of illustrations. These illustrations include animals, a person sitting cross-legged, and various objects.

The Fourteen Dreams of Queen Trishala, folio 14 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra

c. 1475–1500

Western India, Gujarat

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Overall: 11.3 x 26 cm (4 7/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1932.119.14.a
Location: Not on view

Description

Accounts of the lives of liberated beings of the Jain religion are illuminated with special emphasis on the miraculous circumstances leading to the birth of its historical founder Mahavira (500s BCE). For Jains, liberated beings are not reborn after they die; they exist eternally in a blissful meditative state.

After a divinity miraculously implanted the embryo of Mahavira into the womb of Queen Trishala, she dreamed of 14 good omens. Later in the manuscript is an intimate moment between the mother and her special newborn. The bold and costly palette lends the paintings an otherworldly quality.
  • ?–1932
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1932–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Creation, Birth, and Rebirth. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17, 2024-July 16, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=The Fourteen Dreams of Queen Trishala, folio 14 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra|url=false|author=|year=c. 1475–1500|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1932.119.14.a