Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sacred Art & Iconography

Mahavira Preaching to Monks and Nuns: Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript

Manuscript folio, India, Gujarat, 1461, Metropolitan Museum of Art 18.104.8

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A folio from a Jain Kalpasutra manuscript, India, Gujarat, dated 1461 (Samvat 1519), in ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper, showing Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, seated and preaching to an assembly of monks and nuns after his enlightenment. The scene illustrates the founding of his fourfold community of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen, organized under his chief disciples the Ganadharas, an episode central to the Kalpasutra's account of his life read aloud annually during the Svetambara community's Paryushana festival. Held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art under accession 18.104.8, Rogers Fund, 1918.

Facts
Origins
Region
Gujarat, India, where Kalpasutra manuscripts of this kind were most commonly produced and used in Svetambara Jain practice. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Gujarat, Regions

This source names Gujarat directly: "a Jain Kalpasutra manuscript, India, Gujarat, dated 1461 (Samvat 1519), in ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper, showing Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, seated and preaching to an..."

Belongs to Tradition

Depicts

Mahavira, Figures

The folio's directly named subject per the museum's own title, shown preaching to the assembly whose founding the Kalpasutra narrates, confirmed by the corroborating Wikipedia record on the manuscript tradition.

Additional Source Kalpa Sutra (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Mahavira Preaching to Monks and Nuns: Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of ArtView the Source
Kalpa Sutra (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDepicts: Mahavira
Quote, Depicts: Mahavira
The Kalpa Sutra was frequently illustrated with miniature painting from the mid-15th century, with Gujarat a primary center of the tradition.
View the Source
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