Text, folio 2 (verso) from a Parshvanatha Charitra (Life and Stories of Lord Parshva) of Bhavadeva-suri (c. 1275–1300): Art, History and Details

Text, folio 2 (verso) from a Parshvanatha Charitra (Life and Stories of Lord Parshva) of Bhavadeva-suri (c. 1275–1300) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The nine lines of text on this page are written in Devanagari script. They are read from left to right, with each line of text spanning the entire length of the page. It introduces the story of the pious Marubhuti who, after passing through nine more lives, will be reborn as Parshva and reach liberation. The notation in the red squares of the margins indicate the folio number using two different systems. Corrections to the text copy made by later readers are jotted in the lower margin.

Object facts

• Title: Text, folio 2 (verso) from a Parshvanatha Charitra (Life and Stories of Lord Parshva) of Bhavadeva-suri
• Date: c. 1275–1300
• Culture: Western India, Gujarat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on palm leaf
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.7 x 32.4 cm (2 5/8 x 12 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.125.b

A detail from the museum

South Asian manuscripts are usually numbered on the verso; the Devanagari numeral 2 at the right is similar to the Arabic number.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

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.
• Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., and Richard J. Cohen. Essays on Jaina Art. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in association with Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2003.

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.