Seated Devas, illustrated folio from a Jain religious manuscript (painting with text, recto and verso)
Indian
The recto and verso sides of this folio feature lines of prose written in in the Prakrit language in Devanagari script and black ink. The blank square at the center of the page contains a large red spot, a decorative reminder of the hole found in earlier pal-leaf manuscripts. A cord was inserted through the hole and used to string together the folios of a single manuscript. On the recto side of the folio is a painting on the right featuring six gold figures seated within niches. The verso side of the folio features a painting that can be divided into the three sections. The top and bottom of these sections depict two seated, golden figures separated by a column. The middle shows a seated golden figure flanked by attendants. The seated figures bear halos made of petals. They represent heavenly beings (devas) in Jain cosmology.
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper