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Text, Folio 54 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra

c. 1475–1500

Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Overall: 12.5 x 25.7 cm (4 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.)
Culture: Western India, Gujarat
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Edward L. Whittemore Fund
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

About this work

Followers of the Jain religion recognize 24 Jinas, individuals who reached liberation from the cycles of death and rebirth. Arishtanemi was the 22nd of the 24 and was a cousin of Krishna. Here Arishtanemi sits in eternal meditative bliss, crowned and bejeweled in a shrine. His attendants are sometimes recognized as the Hindu deities Krishna and Balarama. Followers of the Jain religion do not view Krishna as a supreme deity; instead, they view him and his brother Balarama as semidivine heroes with access to the liberated being.