The Fourteen Dreams of Queen Trishala, folio 14 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra (c. 1475–1500): Art, History and Details

The Fourteen Dreams of Queen Trishala, folio 14 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra (c. 1475–1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

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.

Object facts

• Title: The Fourteen Dreams of Queen Trishala, folio 14 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra
• Date: c. 1475–1500
• Culture: Western India, Gujarat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.3 x 26 cm (4 7/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1932.119.14.a

Collection credit

Edward L. Whittemore Fund

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.