SEVEN ILLUSTRATED LOOSE FOLIOS FROM A JAIN MANUSCRIPT
Gujarat, West India, 15th century

SEVEN ILLUSTRATED LOOSE FOLIOS FROM A JAIN MANUSCRIPT
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
Gujarat, West India, 15th century

Opaque pigments, gold, cobalt blue, black and red ink on paper, each folio with 7ll. of black ink Jain Prakrit nagari script, the text interrupted in the centre by a square gold, blue and red pothi hole, repeated on each side of the page as decorative illumination, each folio with illustrations of deities and Mahavira's mother on one side, most probably taken from a Kalpasutra manuscript, one of the most important and popular texts in the Śvetāmbara tradition of Jainism, formed of a first part dealing with the lives of the Jinas as princes, each folio 10.5cm x 26cm.

The scenes illustrated are the following:

1. Queen Trishala, Mahavira's mother, Reclining
2. The God Indra Enthroned with a Deva and Generals
3. Devananda's Fourteen Dreams Foretelling the Birth of Mahavira (x 2)
4. The Fourteen Auspicious Dreams
5. The God Indra Revering the Embryo of Mahavira
6. Mahavira's Bath and Lustration at Birth

Similar illustrated Jain folios successfully sold at auctions, please see Christie's South Kensington, 20 April 2007, lot 426; Christie's New York, 20 March 2012, lot 333; Christie's London, 10 June 2013, lot 58; and these Rooms, 25 October 2019, lot 335.

Dimensions: each folio 10.5cm x 26cm