A Jain Pancha Namaskara Mahamantra
Gujarat, India, 16th century
Opaque watercolor on cloth; The central golden figure of Padmaprabha dentified by a lotus below his throne , seated in padmāsana with his right hand in the gesture of teaching holding a mala and the left resting in his lap, flanked by two worshipping monks, surrounded by four tirthankaras on lotus leaves, divided by tapering waterways and set on a stepped yantra containing auspicious objects in the outer cubes. The deep aubergine field of sacred text frames the yantra and is flanked by vertical rows of the twenty-four tirthankaras and registers of lay worshippers and monks around two large multi-armed goddesses, Lakshmi on the left and Saraswati on the right. 48 x 19 ½ in. (121.9 x 49.5 cm.)