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Title

Kalpasutra manuscript page: Monks and Devotees

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

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.

Century

15th century

Object Creation Date

1400-1450

Accession Number

1970/2.116

Medium and Support

ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Primary Keywords

jainism

manuscripts

monks

Title

Padmavati (small folk bronze)

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

Century

17th century

Object Creation Date

circa 17th century

Accession Number

1975/2.113

Medium and Support

bronze

Primary Keywords

goddesses

gods

jainism

Title

Ambika

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

Physical Description

Ambika sits above her stylized lion mount with a long body and with its tail curled to add support to the seated figure above. She sits with one leg pendant. She has four arms, the back two hold stylized mango clusters and her front right hand holds a large mango. Her left-hand cups a child seated on her left knee. Another child stands on the base to her right. The backing takes on a throne-like form, but she appears to float in front of it, the square-ish base is pierced and the arch of the back is surmounted by an auspicious pot form with leaves creating a volute shape to either side. The sculpture is solid brass, but the eyes and an ornament in her headdress are inlayed with silver.

Century

17th century

Object Creation Date

17th century

Accession Number

1975/2.114

Medium and Support

brass with silver inlay

Primary Keywords

children (people by age group)

goddesses

gods

hinduism

jainism

Title

Caturvimsati Pata (Shrine of the 24 Jinas)

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

Physical Description

This shrine depicts a large seated Jina surrounded by 23 other jina figures and a variety of attendants. The Jina figures that adorn the sides and are arranged in tiers above the main figure. The side columns and the whole is surmounted by auspicious pot forms. The main figure sits in the lotus position on a lion throne flanked by a male and female demigod. Along the sides he is flanked by standing cauri bearers, garland bearers above them and riders on elephants above that with an umbrella with a standing figure on it above his head. At the base in the center is a standing figure holding a sick or club with a bull cognizance behind him on the base of the throne. The nine globs on the base, four to his right and five to his left represent the nine planets and his hands folded in a gesture of meditation

Century

15th century

Object Creation Date

1464

Accession Number

1975/2.120

Medium and Support

bronze or brass

Primary Keywords

altars

jainism

Title

Malli shrine, dated VS 1528 [1471 A.D.]

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

Physical Description

The jina Malli sits in the lotus position on an inlayed cushion on a tiered throne. Seated with his hands folded in a gesture of meditation, he is surrounded by a number of figures representing other jinas, attendants and demigods. In the center in front of the throne sits the goddess Ambika with a child on her lap. On the first tier of the throne sit two figures that may represent donors. On the next left are nine mounds representing the nine planets [navagraha], five to his right and four to his left. At the base of his seat are two stylized lions and this is flanked by a male and female demigod. On the arch surrounding the figure at his level a standing jina figure is to each side and cauri bearer is on the outside of each of them. At his shoulders, the cross bars of the throne back end in stylized makara heads with jewels hanging from their mouths. A seated jina adorns the arch to each side of his head and elephants surmount them with an umbrella over his head with a dancing figure atop it. The whole is surmounted by an auspicious lota or pot. Diamond shaped copper and silver pieces adorn the pillow and parts of the throne back and silver inlay highlight his eyes and chest jewel.

Century

15th century

Object Creation Date

1471

Accession Number

1975/2.121

Medium and Support

brass with copper and silver inlay

Primary Keywords

jainism

Title

Parshvanatha (small folk bronze)

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, North or Central India

Century

20th-century

Object Creation Date

20th century

Accession Number

1975/2.122

Medium and Support

bronze

Primary Keywords

jainism

Title

Jina, fragment of a larger shrine

Artist

Artist Unknown, India

Century

20th-century

Object Creation Date

circa 15th century

Accession Number

1975/2.123

Medium and Support

copper

Primary Keywords

females, human

jaina

jainism

shrine

Title

Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina and worshipper

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School

Physical Description

In the upper register of this folio a woman holds a child who is crowned and adorned with jewels. The golden hue of the infant, along with the fan held above their heads signifies the child’s importance. They sit in devotion before a Jina, indicated by his nudity—a trademark of Digambara Jina and a sign of purity.

Century

18th century

Object Creation Date

circa 18th century

Accession Number

1975/2.165

Medium and Support

ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Primary Keywords

child

deity

infant

jaina

jainism

mother

nudes

women

Title

Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina and battle scene

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School

Physical Description

Worshippers gather and seem to celebrate around a sky-clad (nude) Jina and monk at top center. Flanking these figures are two searted drummers. In the lower register men on horseback and elephant look up to them as the ride by and raise their weapons in battle. A trumpeter sounds his instrument in the bottom left.

Century

18th century

Object Creation Date

18th century

Accession Number

1975/2.168

Medium and Support

ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Primary Keywords

deity

drums (membranophones)

horse

jain

jainism

manuscripts

worshippers

Title

Digambara Jain manuscript page: Jina venerated by a community of laymen

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School

Physical Description

Eight worshippers sit to the right of a sky-clad (nude) Jina and monk. They each raise beads in their hands. Below them a struggle is depicted. Two men in shorts wrestle, while a snake, tiger, and elephant rera up beside a fire.

Century

18th century

Object Creation Date

18th century

Accession Number

1975/2.169

Medium and Support

ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Primary Keywords

deity

elephants

fire

jain

jainism

monk

snake

tiger

worshippers

Title

Jain Tirthankara and a monk with animal forest scene, no. 12 from a Digambara series

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Sirohi School

Physical Description

Two distinct registers divide a page in half. At the top, a yellow-orange colored nude jina sits in lotus position upon a three tiered throne [a patterned blue level at the bottom on feet, with an orange section with gold and red decoration and a green level at the top with gold vertical stripes]. He sits against a red background adorned with a pattern of three white dots. The background takes the shape of an elegant cusped arch with a green and white pattern along its outside with a gold pattern at its sides. To the right of the seated figure a nude Digambara monk sits with his legs folded and one knee up on a less elaborate throne with a lota or pot at the corner and a crossed bookstand to the side holding a book with some devanagari writing on it. He raises his right arm and holds his left to his ear.

Placed under a band of curving yellow stripes, the bottom register represents animals in a landscape. At the bottom are clumps of grass with four stylized mountain forms in blue at the right. Above the mountains stands a tiger facing a family of antelope striding towards him. The family consists of the blue male with his long spiraling horns and a yellow doe below him with a flesh-colored in front of her. Another small yellow fawn takes up the rear. Clumps of light blue and green grasses fill in the background.

Century

18th century

Object Creation Date

18th century

Accession Number

1975/2.178

Medium and Support

ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Primary Keywords

antelopes

book

deer

deity

does

grass (plant material)

jainism

kettles

landscapes (environments)

men

monk

mountains

nudes

pot

tiger

Title

Ambika, mother Goddess holding a child on her left leg with feet resting on a lion

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

Century

16th century

Object Creation Date

16th century

Accession Number

1976/2.58

Medium and Support

bronze

Primary Keywords

jainism

Title

Jaina altar piece of the 24 [Caturvimsati] Jinas: with standing nude figure of Mahavira cast in the round occupying central area of base, flanked by small tirthankaras; incsribed but unread. From Mysore, Karnataka.

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, South India

Century

15th-16th century

Object Creation Date

15th century - 16th century

Accession Number

1978/2.118

Medium and Support

bronze

Primary Keywords

altar

jaina shrines

jainism

lions

Title

Mahavira

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Maharashtra

Century

12th century

Object Creation Date

12th century

Accession Number

1979/2.53

Medium and Support

bronze

Primary Keywords

altars and altar components

jainism

miniature (size attribute)

Title

Kalpasutra manuscript, leaf: A Jaina monk (fol. no. 2r)

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Gujarat

Physical Description

Leaf from a Kalpasutra manuscript with calligraphic text. Font size varies, and in the center of the leaf text wraps around a blank box of parchment with a red dot in the center. To the left of this main text block is a colorful illustration of an enthroned figure in a dotted robe flanked by devotees. Surrounding him are various auspicious symbols.

Century

15th century

Object Creation Date

15th century

Accession Number

1980/2.247

Medium and Support

ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Primary Keywords

calligraphy

jainism

manuscripts

monks

Title

Yakshi and attendant

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, North India

Physical Description

This broken fragment depicts a now headless goddess or yakshi standing with a much smaller male attendant. She wears a necklace, bracelets and a girdle consisting of three rows of small round shapes. She stands with her left hand at her waist and the right hand next to the head of her attendant. He wears a turban and large earrings and a belt of a single line of round shapes. They both wear diaphanous lower garments that make them appear nude with both of them with their genitals exposed. The fragment is broken above the male figure’s knees and below the yakshi’s knees.

Century

2nd century

Object Creation Date

2nd century

Accession Number

1980/2.285

Medium and Support

terracotta

Primary Keywords

buddhism

figures

hinduism

jainism

necklace

terracottas

Title

Jain Goddess

Artist

Artist Unknown, India

Century

12th-13th century

Object Creation Date

12th century - 13th century

Accession Number

2003/2.77A&B

Medium and Support

marble

Primary Keywords

deity

goddesses

gods

jainism

Title

Column with Four Jinas and Attendants (Jain Marble Column)

Artist

Artist Unknown, India, Rajasthan or Gujarat, Jain

Physical Description

This column fragment consists of a base with a seated jina in the center with a tiered umbrella above him under an elaborate arch flanked by two figures to either side—two male and dancing females at the outside. Three virtually identical bands above it represent smaller seated jinas in less elaborate pavilions. A pair of male cauri bearers with a devotional male on the outside flanks each of the two central figures. The top figure is flanked by the pair of cauri bearers, but with an elephant surmounted by a lion figure on either side. There is no cognizance present to identify any of the four jinas, all are depicted in lotus position and their hands in dhyana mudra, a meditation gesture.

Century

12th - 13th century

Object Creation Date

12th century - 13th century

Accession Number

2004/1.151

Medium and Support

marble

Primary Keywords

jain

jainism