Two nuns teaching lay women, colophon page of folio 167 (recto) from a Kalpa-sutra and Story of Kalakacharya (1278): Art, History and Details

Two nuns teaching lay women, colophon page of folio 167 (recto) from a Kalpa-sutra and Story of Kalakacharya (1278) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Wearing white billowing monastic robes, the two nuns contrast with the beautifully adorned laywomen, who wear elaborately patterned textiles and jewelry. Jains commissioned illuminated manuscripts as a way to accrue religious merit, and they would have images of themselves at prayer inserted into the image cycles like this as signs of their patronage.

Object facts

• Title: Two nuns teaching lay women, colophon page of folio 167 (recto) from a Kalpa-sutra and Story of Kalakacharya
• Date: 1278
• Culture: Western India, Gujarat, Palanpur (Prahladanapura)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on palm leaf
• Dimensions: Overall: 5.4 x 32.1 cm (2 1/8 x 12 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.126.a

A detail from the museum

Small captions give the names of the figures; the larger nun is identified as the female leader (mahattarā).

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pal, Pratapaditya, with contributions by Shridhar Andhare and others. The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1994.
• Brown, W. Norman. The Story of Kālaka: Texts, History, Legends, and Miniature Paintings of the Śvetāmbara Jain Hagiographical Work, the Kālakācāryakathā (with 15 Plates). Washington, DC: Lord Baltimore Press, 1933.
• Nawab, Sarabhai Manilal. Jain Paintings: Paintings on Palm-Leaves and Wooden Bookcovers Only. vol. I. Ahmedabad: Messrs Sarabhai Manilal Nawab, 1980.

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.