# Transfer of the Embryo of Mahavira, Folio 12 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra

- Date: 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
- Credit line: Edward L. Whittemore Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1932.119.12.a)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1932.119.12.a/1932.119.12.a_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The tiny captions written in Sanskrit to the right of the painting identify the subject of this scene: “abduction of the embryo” and “transfer of the embryo.” The embryo is the unborn founder of the Jain religion.

In this miraculous episode, a goat-headed divinity who presides over miscarriage and childbirth gently takes the embryo in his cupped hands away from the reclining Brahmin lady in the scene above. Below, he carries it to a queen, who will be the birth mother.