Description

Five naked men are walking, each carrying a water-pot and white broom. The natural landscape is shown by the palm trees.

These men are advanced Digambara monks and thus they are fully naked. Among Digambaras, the broom carried by all Jain mendicants is usually made of peacock feathers. Here, its white colour suggests that it is probably made of cotton and thus it looks more like the broom of Śvetāmbara monks.

The trees offer some shade, since it is the hot season, as the text says. These monks are wandering in the forest near King Māridatta’s capital, Rājapura. They are led by Sudatta, as mentioned in line 6 – Sudatto muṇi.

Sudatta found that Rājapura was not fit for life according to the rule because it was a place for pleasure so he decided that they should stay in ‘a very dreadful cemetery’. This masāṇu bībhacha bhuri is extensively described, beginning on line 3 of the folio‘s other side.

The long protruding eye is a typical feature of western Indian painting. Its origin is unclear.

Other visual elements

This is a good example of an average manuscript. A red background is used for the painting but there is no use of gold, intricate design elements or elaborate script.

The bottom of the right margin contains the number 4, which is the folio number.

In the upper and lower margins there are syllables missing from the main text, or corrections. The number before them is the line number where they should be inserted.

Script

The script used for the main text is the Jaina Devanāgarī script. It is used for writing numerous Indian languages, here Apabhraṃśa Prakrit.