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Parshva Undergoes Physical Trials, Folio 46 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra

Unknown

1500

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Mughal Painting Renaissance Renaissance Religious

Dominant colour

Parshva Undergoes Physical Trials, Folio 46 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra is a 1500 unspecified by Unknown, a Mughal Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1500 · Mughal Painting
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a holy man standing in deep meditation while water rises to his shoulders. Snakes coil around him, their hoods forming a shelter over his head. This painting tells a story from Jain scripture: even when storms tried to drown him, Parshva stayed calm. The snakes protected him so he could finish his practice and reach enlightenment. The gold waves aren’t realistic—they’re more like a pattern to show the danger he overcame. Look up more paintings from western india, gujarat, late 15th-early 16th century to see how artists told these spiritual stories.

The story of this work

Overview

Parshva stands in a yogic posture of meditation, bearing the hardship of the elements, unmoved. When stormwaters threatened his life, serpents shielded him so that he could complete his meditations and reach liberation. One cobra stretched his seven-hooded canopy over his head like an umbrella, while a serpent king and his wife praise him. The abstract gold lines on the blue background represent the waters that rose to the level of his shoulders. In this painting, the image of Parshva wears a white lower garment, which indicates that this manuscript was made for the prominent branch of…

Read the full account in the museum source.