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Mahavira's Initiation Tonsure, Folio 37 (verso), 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, last quarter of the 15th century
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

When Mahavira chose to renounce his life as a prince to seek omniscience and ultimate liberation, he traveled from his palace to the countryside until he came to a wooded park. The text states that under an ashoka tree in the park, Mahavira removed his ornaments and garlands and plucked out his hair with his fists in five handfuls. In the illumination he unflinchingly grasps a fistful of hair, his pectoral muscle flexed with the effort. Indra, the four-armed king of the gods, sits under a royal canopy on a lower level than Mahavira and praises his extreme act of self-mortification. The dramatic moment is effectively conveyed through the pert and wiry line drawing and bold palette of pigments made from lapis lazuli, vermilion, and lavish amounts of gold.