Mahavira Preaching to Monks and Nuns: Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript

A folio from a Jain Kalpasutra manuscript, India, Gujarat, dated 1461 (Samvat 1519), in ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper, showing Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, seated and preaching to an assembly of monks and nuns after his enlightenment. The scene illustrates the founding of his fourfold community of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen, organized under his chief disciples the Ganadharas, an episode central to the Kalpasutra's account of his life read aloud annually during the Svetambara community's Paryushana festival. Held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art under accession 18.104.8, Rogers Fund, 1918.