Victoria and Albert Museum
The world’s greatest museum of art and design
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The Art of the Book
The Birth of Mahavira, from a Kalpasutra manuscript, Late 15th - early 16th century
The Birth of Mahavira, from a Kalpasutra manuscript, Late 15th - early 16th century
Page from a Kalpasutra manuscript showing the birth of Mahavira
From the Kalpasutra Manuscript
Western India
Late 15th - early 16th century
Opaque watercolour on paper
Museum no. IM.8-1931
The Kalpasutra (The Book of Ritual) is one of the two most popular texts and contains biographies of the four most significant Jinas, including Mahavira, and the Story of the Teacher Kalaka (Kalakacharyakatha), an influential moralising work frequently appended to the Kalpasutra.
