1755
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Shvetambara Jain Teacher Giving Instruction is a 1755 unspecified by Sahib Ram, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a teacher in white robes sitting on the floor, talking to a small crowd. One hand is raised; the other holds a cloth over his mouth. A book rests on a low table in front of him. Men sit close, women sit farther back. This is a Jain teacher, part of a group that lets monks live at home, grow hair, and wear colored shawls. The cloth over his mouth keeps tiny insects from being harmed—showing how much Jains value all life. To see more quiet scenes like this, look up northwestern india, rajasthan, rajput kingdom of jaipur.
A manuscript lies on a low table in front of the preacher, who holds one hand up in the gesture of discourse, and the other holds a cloth to shield his mouth from insects. The audience of laypeople includes men gathered near the front of the composition, and women in a group toward the back. The preacher and the white-clad figures behind him are Jain householder monks, permitted to grow hair and moustaches and to wear a colored shawl that indicates higher status. Householder monks in Rajasthan often served as scribes and maintained manuscript libraries.
The monks seated next to the teacher place their whisk-brooms before them.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Sahib Ram spent his days hunched over delicate scraps, inking tiny figures onto paper so thin it almost disappeared under his brush.
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