Vessantara's children are cared for a Jujaka sleeps, a scene from the next-to-last life of the Buddha (Vessantara Jataka)

Complete sets of the standard thirteen paintings for the recitation of the story of Prince Vessantara are extremely rare. Once a set of paintings was used in a recitation it might not have been used again, and no particular provision may have been made to preserve it. The number of single paintings or small groups of paintings surviving from sets suggests that sets were often broken up and dispersed.
This set [2006.27.80.1-.13] probably about 120 years old, remains in fair condition. Most details of the paintings, though scratched and abraded, can still be made out, but the inscriptions along the bottom edges have suffered considerable damage and are now only partly legible.

Just as the recitation of the "Great Life" was sometimes accompanied by sound effects and naughty side-stories, in this set of paintings the artist enlivens the main story with bawdy vignettes, monkeyshines, and amusing anachronisms. The artist's interest in some aspects of classical Western landscape painting is also apparent.

[2006.27.80.11] Chapter 11

While Jujaka sleeps he leaves the children tied up. They are miserable and frightened; gods take the form of their parents and care for them. Later, the children's grandfather ransoms them from Jujaka. Newly rich, Jujaka kills himself through overindulgence. The grandfather determines to take his grandchildren into the forest and find his son and daughter-in-law.

Gods in the guise of the parents cradle the children in their arms while Jujaka sleeps and tigers prowl.