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Image of Indra orders Hanjhaigansesin to transfer the embryo

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Bookmark: https://collection.sdmart.org/objects-1/info/5351

Indra orders Hanjhaigansesin to transfer the embryo


Creation date: 15th century
Creation place: India

Other Information

Type: Manuscript Painting
Medium and Support: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Credit Line: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
Accession Number: 1990.183
State/Province: Gujarat
Dimensions: 4 9/32 in. x 3 1/8 in. (10.9 cm x 7.9 cm)

Provenance

Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, New York ( - January 31, 1961)

Edwin Binney 3rd, San Diego, California (January 31, 1961 - August 27, 1990)

San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California (August 27, 1990 - )

Label Copy

Sonya Quintanilla (2014) Quebec Label
Indra orders Harinaigameshin to transfer the embryo
Folio from a Kalpasutra
India, 15th century
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990.183
During the fifteenth century Jain manuscripts were being produced in vast numbers. Pious Jains paid to have copies of sacred texts written and illustrated, usually for the sake of donation to a temple, for which the donor was thought to accrue great spiritual merit. The pigments were often made from gold, lapis lazuli, and vermillion–all expensive mineral pigments, for it was thought that the more lavish the production, the greater the merit. Because of Jainism’s strict tenets of non-violence, most Jains were businessmen or jewelers, and the community amassed great wealth, much of which was poured into their temples and the production of texts. The majority of the texts that were produced are of the Kalpasutra, which contains the stories of the lives of the Jinas, with special emphasis on the first Jina Mahavira.
Indra, the king of the gods sits enthroned, holding his weapon the thunderbolt in his upper right hand. In the text on this page of the Kalpasutra Indra orders the goat-headed demi-god Harinaigameshin to transfer Mahavira’s embryo from the Brahmin woman Devananda to the queen Trishala, since Jinas can only be born to women from the ruling caste.
Last Updated: 9/5/2017

Exhibition

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Persian and Indian Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Binney, 3rd The Portland Art Association , 9/28/1962 - 11/29/1962

Into India: South Asian Paintings from The San Diego Museum of Art San Diego Museum of Art , 2/28/2012 - 5/27/2012

Visible Vaults The San Diego Museum of Art , 11/12/2016 - 00/00/00

Bibliography

This object has the following bibliographic references:

Dr. Edwin Binney, 3rd. Persian and Indian Miniatures, Portland Art Museum. Portland, Oregon, 1962
Page Number: 29 no. 50

Dr. Sonya Quintanilla and Patrick Coleman. Visiones de la India Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2012
Page Number: 54, 260, Figure Number: cat 16, p. 55

Dr. Sonya Quintanilla and Patrick Coleman. Visiones de la India (Mexico) Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. Mexico , 2013
Page Number: 46, Figure Number: cat 16, p 46, 47

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