Folio 40 from a Kalpa-sutra: Text (recto); Birth of Mahavira (verso) (c. 1400): Art, History and Details

Folio 40 from a Kalpa-sutra: Text (recto); Birth of Mahavira (verso) (c. 1400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This page describes the joyous and peaceful pregnancy of Queen Trishala, mother of the 24th Jina Mahavira, which lasted 9 months, 7-and-a-half days. It goes on to say that Mahavira was born at midnight on the 13th day of the first month of summer, and all omens augured success. The painting shows the happy mother nestling her infant on a swing.

Object facts

• Title: Folio 40 from a Kalpa-sutra: Text (recto); Birth of Mahavira (verso)
• Date: c. 1400
• Culture: Western India, Gujarat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.4 x 28.4 cm (3 11/16 x 11 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1976.27

A detail from the museum

The marginalia beginning with the "=" sign explain the content of the text.

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski

Further reading listed by the museum

• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.