- Title
- Harinegameshin Takes the Embryo of Jina Mahavira from Devananda and Brings it to Queen Trishala, Folio from a Kalpasutra (Book of Sacred Precepts)
- Date Made
- circa 1450
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 4 1/4 x 10 1/8 in. (10.8 x 25.72 cm)
- Accession Number
- AC1999.127.17
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
The Kalpa Sutra (Book of Sacred Precepts) is a Shvetambara Jain text ascribed to Bhadrabahu (4th century BCE). It narrates the lives of the four major Jain spiritual leaders, known as Jinas or Tirthankaras. This two-fold scene illustrates the story of the conception of the twenty-fourth Jina, Mahavira (c. 599–527 BCE).
When it was time for Mahavira to be born, he entered the womb of a Brahman woman, Devananda. Indra, the Vedic king of the gods, decided that the fetus had to be transferred to the womb of a woman of the royal Kshatriya caste, Queen Trishala. Indra entrusted his goat-headed general, Harinegameshin, with this responsibility. In the top section of this folio, Harinegameshin takes the embryo away from the reclining Devananda and, in the lower compartment, delivers it to Queen Trishala. Both women wear intricately patterned garments characteristic of contemporaneous western Indian textiles. See also M.71.1.18.
