Description

There is no illustration on this page, which contains stanzas 97 to 101 of the Kālakācārya-kathāStory of the Monk Kalaka. These verses form the end of the manuscript text and are followed by the colophon.

Other visual elements

The Kālaka story is often an appendix to Kalpa-sūtra manuscripts. In many manuscripts of these two texts, there is a clear intention to make the manuscript a valuable and remarkable object in itself. Here this is achieved in a rather modest manner. This aim is signalled by the:

  • ornamental motif in the central margin
  • calligraphic script.

This manuscript belongs to a rather early phase of Kalpa-sūtra paper manuscripts, the beginning of the 15th century. This is evidenced by the:

  • format of the paper, which is rather narrow
  • old system of folio numbering, using ‘letter-numerals’, which is found in the left-hand margins of the verso sides.

This version of the Kālaka story is told in poetry. Verse numbers are at the end of each stanza. Here they are in black, like the rest of the text, and slightly emphasised with light red powder. On this page are the following numbers:

  • 97 in the first half of line 1
  • 98 in the middle of line 2
  • 99 in the second half of line 3
  • 100 in the second half of line 4
  • 101 in the second half of line 5.

This means that this page includes the second part of verse 97 up to the end of verse 101, which corresponds to the close of the text.
The line in cursive script below the main text repeats in Gujarati the formula giving the date of copying, which is written just above in Sanskrit. This translation was probably written by the person who sold or presented the manuscript.

 

Script

The elaborate script is the Jaina Devanāgarī script, in a form which recalls calligraphy. It is used for writing numerous Indian languages, here for Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit and Sanskrit.