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Birth of Mahavira, folio 30 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra

c. 1475–1500
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

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In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · as of July 2026

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FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

Accounts of the lives of liberated beings of the Jain religion are illuminated with special emphasis on the miraculous circumstances leading to the birth of its historical founder Mahavira (500s BCE). For Jains, liberated beings are not reborn after they die; they exist eternally in a blissful meditative state. After a divinity miraculously implanted the embryo of Mahavira into the womb of Queen Trishala, she dreamed of 14 good omens. Later in the manuscript is an intimate moment between the mother and her special newborn. The bold and costly palette lends the paintings an otherworldly quality.

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