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Mahavira's Initiation Tonsure, Folio 37 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra

Unknown

1488

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Religious

Dominant colour

Mahavira's Initiation Tonsure, Folio 37 (verso), from a Kalpa-sutra is a 1488 unspecified by Unknown, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1488 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a prince pulling out his own hair in fistfuls under a tree. Gods watch from above. This painting shows a moment from Jain tradition: Mahavira, a spiritual leader, giving up his royal life. The artist made his muscles tense to show how hard it is to let go. No one knows who painted it, but the style comes from Gujarat in the late 1400s. If you like this, look up more about western india, gujarat, last quarter of the 15th century.

The story of this work

Overview

When Mahavira chose to renounce his life as a prince to seek omniscience and ultimate liberation, he traveled from his palace to the countryside until he came to a wooded park. The text states that under an ashoka tree in the park, Mahavira removed his ornaments and garlands and plucked out his hair with his fists in five handfuls. In the illumination he unflinchingly grasps a fistful of hair, his pectoral muscle flexed with the effort. Indra, the four-armed king of the gods, sits under a royal canopy on a lower level than Mahavira and praises his extreme act of self-mortification. The…

Read the full account in the museum source.