Folio 2 from a Parshvanatha Charitra (Life and Stories of Lord Parshva) of Bhavadeva-suri: Monk preaching to a disciple with a lay audience (recto); Text (verso), c. 1275–1300
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Folio 2 from a Parshvanatha Charitra (Life and Stories of Lord Parshva) of Bhavadeva-suri: Monk preaching to a disciple with a lay audience (recto); Text (verso)

c. 1275–1300

Medium
Gum tempera and ink on palm leaf
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Overall: 6.7 x 32.4 cm (2 5/8 x 12 3/4 in.)
Culture
Western India, Gujarat
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This leaf comes from the beginning of a manuscript about the life and nine past lives of the penultimate Jina (liberated being in the Jain religion), known as Parshva. Composed by a learned Jain monk in 1255, it opens with praises exalting the Jinas. This manuscript was produced not long after the text gained popularity, since the style of the painting accords with others made during the third quarter of the 13th century. The language of the text is Sanskrit with the incorporation of numerous elements drawn from regional vernaculars.