A Jain embroidered blue silk book cover

拍品描述

INDIAN WORKS OF ART A Jain embroidered blue silk book cover, Gujarat, 17th-18th century, Embroidered in couched gold- and silver-toned twisted wire, silk wrapped metallic thread, and metal sequins, with auspicious symbols arranged in two registers on blue silk, 29 x 17.5cm. Literature: Pratapaditya Pal, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, exhibition catalogue Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Thames & Hudson, 1994, cat no. 95 A very similar book cover in red silk from the collection of Chester and Davida Herwitz Family collection is referenced above. Jain sacred texts were often kept in ornate covers such as this one. Both ours and the example from the Herwitz collection have two registers of the fourteen auspicious dreams of Mahavira's two mothers which foretold the future saviour's noble nature. The fourteen auspicious dreams occurred to Mahavira's brahmin mother Devananda on the night when Mahavira descended from Pushpotara heaven to enter her womb; his surrogate kshatriya mother Trisala had them on the night she received the transferred embryo from Harinegameshin. Each saw an elephant, a bull, a lion, the lustration of the goddess Sri, a garland, the moon, the sun, a banner a vase a plenty, a lotus pond, an ocean of milk, a celestial chariot, a head of jewels and a raging smokeless fire. The symbols representing these dreams are arranged left to right.

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