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Birth of Mahavira, folio 40 (verso) from a Kalpa-sutra
c. 1400
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 9.4 x 28.4 cm (3 11/16 x 11 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Western India, Gujarat
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski
- 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
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
A queen and her golden newborn lie on a swing, gazing at one another as two attendants hold fly whisks to honor them. The infant is Mahavira, founder of the Jain religion, who lived during the 500s BC in northern India.
Though palm leaf was preferred for sacred texts, Jain communities transitioned to the more readily available material of paper during the 1300s. A hole in the central red dot was made for a binding string.
The margin notes beginning with the “=” sign are comments explaining the text.
