Kalpasutra manuscript page: Monks and Devotees / Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat
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About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1970/2.116
- Title
- Kalpasutra manuscript page: Monks and Devotees
- Artist Nationality
- Indian
- Medium and Support
- ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
- Object Creation Date
- 1400-1450
- Object Creation Place
- Asia (continent)
- India (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- Asia (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- India (nation)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, Acquisition Fund
- Style/Group/Movement
- Jaina painting
- Dimensions
- 11 cm x 25.9 cm (4 5/16 in. x 10 3/16 in.)
- Century
- 15th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Books and Folios
- Primary Object Type
- leaf
- Secondary Object Classification
- Painting
- Physical Description
- The horizontal folio from a Kalpasutra manuscript consists of seven lines of text to the left and center broken by a squarish gold symbol framed in a red line and cusped blue lines. Gold diamond shapes framed in red are at the sides, with a vertical red line between the one on the left and the text. Between the text and the right diamond shape there is a painting consisting of three registers of figures against a red ground. The top row depicts three laymen wearing crowns, the middle two monks and a nun and the bottom row three nuns.
- Subject Matter
- Some of the earliest Indian paintings on paper are found in manuscripts of the Kalpasutra, a popular text that recounts the lives the jinas or “spiritual victors” of the Jaina religion. The paper was cut into horizontal pages, following a long tradition of palm-leaf manuscripts. In paper as in earlier palm leaf books, loose-leaf pages were flipped, bottom to top, as one read them; the verso (back or reverse side) of one folio would be seen with the recto (front side) of the following page.
- Here monks and nuns sit in rows offering homage to one of the jinas or a teacher, who probably was depicted on the preceding folio. The convention of depicting the faces in profile with a projecting “further eye” is common in early painting throughout northern India. It is only in the early sixteenth century that this “further eye” disappears. This manuscript page is the earliest painting in the exhibition.
- Secondary Keywords
- associated concepts
- document genres
- document genres by conditions of production
- information forms
- objects we use
- people
- people (agents)
- people and culture
- people and occupations
- people by occupation
- people in religion
- people in religion and related occupations
- people in the humanities
- religion
- religions
- religions and religious concepts
- religious (people)
- religious figures
- text-based art
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 1408 x 720
- File Size
- 122 KB
- Record
- 1970/2.116
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1970-sl-2.116/1970_2.116.jpg
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Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1970-SL-2.116:1970_2.116.JPG
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- Full citation
-
"Kalpasutra manuscript page: Monks and Devotees; Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1970-sl-2.116/1970_2.116.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 16, 2024.