Sakra commands Harinaigamesin to carry Mahavira’s embryo from the Brahmani Devananda to Queen Trisala

Two main religious texts serve the Svetambara (“white clad”) sect of Jainism: the Kalpasutra, which relates the biography of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Jina; and the Kalakacharyakatha (Story of Kalaka). Donors would commission copies of Jain texts as an act of merit, to present to their spiritual teacher and to eventually be housed in the temple library. This page comes from a manuscript made in Western India, probably Gujarat. The Vedic deity Indra, or Sakra, came to the aid of the twenty-fourth Jina Mahavira from his conception to his birth. In this illustration Sakra commands the goat-headed deity Harinegameshin to carry the embryo of Mahavira from his Brahmin mother Devananda, who had fourteen auspicious dreams on the night that Mahavira descended from Pushpottara heaven to enter her womb. Harinegameshin carries the embryo to Mahavira’s surrogate mother Queen Trisala, who also has auspicious dreams on the night that she receives the embryo. Harinegameshin is an ancient Indian folk deity worshipped as a patron of children and provider of safe childbirth.