Leaf from a Kalpa Sutra (Jain Book of Rituals)
15th century
Medium
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
Dimensions
(Average size .1–.71): 4 1/2 x 11 3/8 in. (11.4 x 28.9 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Culture
India (Gujarat)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Cora Timken Burnett, 1956
Accession Number
57.51.38.64
Art Historical Context
This exquisite leaf from a *Kalpa Sutra*, a sacred Jain text outlining rituals, monastic rules, and biographies of revered spiritual teachers, hails from 15th-century Gujarat, India. Crafted by the artist Bhadrabahu, it exemplifies the Western Indian manuscript tradition, where illuminated pages brought religious narratives to life for Jain devotees. Produced during a golden age of Jain patronage in Gujarat, these manuscripts were treasured possessions, often commissioned by wealthy merchants to earn spiritual merit. Rendered in ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, the leaf measures abo...
About the Artist
Bhadrabahu
Ācārya Bhadrabāhu (c. 367–c. 298 BCE) was one of the most consequential figures in the intellectual and institutional history of Jainism, a scholar-monk traditionally revered as the last Shruta Kevalin — that is, the final ascetic to possess complete, unmediated knowledge of the entire body of Jain scripture as transmitted from Mahavira, the religion's founding teacher. Born in Pundravardhana, a r...