Seated Jina Rishabha Enshrined, from a Jain Manuscript: Kalpa-Sutra (c. 1500): Art, History and Details

Seated Jina Rishabha Enshrined, from a Jain Manuscript: Kalpa-Sutra (c. 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

By the 1400s, paper had replaced palm leaves as the primary support for Jain manuscripts. Although binding strings were no longer passed through holes in the manuscript, since they would tear the paper, the location of the holes was maintained by means of ornamented gold lozenges. Followers of Jainism commissioned copies of sacred manuscripts in order to accrue spiritual merit for themselves and their families; adorning the manuscript with paintings increased the merit. The main figure, painted in gold, sits in eternal meditative bliss, bejeweled to denote his success in reaching liberation. His long hair and the tiny, white bull beneath his crossed ankles identify him as Rishabha.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Jina Rishabha Enshrined, from a Jain Manuscript: Kalpa-Sutra
• Date: c. 1500
• Culture: Western India, Gujarat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Paper: 11.1 x 25.9 cm (4 3/8 x 10 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1983.1047

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Ward

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.