This page consists of stanzas 63 to 64 of this Sanskrit version of the popular story of Kālaka.

At the left is a Jain monk holding the cotton broom under one of his arms and wearing the typical Śvetāmbara monastic robe. Sitting on a slightly raised seat, he holds his mouth-cloth. Between him and the other figure is a sthāpanācārya. The man on the right has four arms, which indicates that he is not a human being but a god. Two of his hands are folded in a gesture of respect. His beautiful costume and the ornate circle around his head suggest that he is a king.

The Jain monk is the Ācārya Kālaka. The figure on the right is the god Śakra or Indra who has regained his true form. In this episode of the story of Kālaka, Śakra disguises himself so he can test the knowledge and abilities of the respected teacher Kālaka. Once convinced of the monk’s learning and spiritual powers, Śakra casts off his disguise and willingly pays his respects to Kālaka.

Other visual elements

There are several notable things about this page, which is not in perfect condition as the edges are slightly torn.

The Kālaka story is often an appendix to Kalpa-sūtra manuscripts. In many Kalpa-sūtra manuscripts, there is a clear intention to make the manuscript a valuable and remarkable object in itself. This often holds true for the manuscripts of the Kālaka story as well. Here this aim is signalled by the:

• shape and style of the script, which is close to calligraphy
• use of gold ink for the red-edged border lines and ornamental diamond shapes
• division of the text into two equally-sized panels, separated by a 2-centimetre margin containing a golden diamond
• blue ornamental motifs around the golden diamonds.

There are three ornamental diamonds because this is the verso side of a folio.

This version of the Kālaka story is told in poetry. Verse numbers are at the end of each stanza. They are often in red, like here. On this page are the following numbers:

• 63 on line 2
• 64 on the last line.

This means that this page has the end of verse 63, all of verse 64, and the beginning of verse 65.

The bottom of the right margin contains the number 198, which is the folio number. It is a high number because this manuscript is the continuation of a Kalpa-sūtra manuscript. However, the rest of the manuscript is not available.

Script

The elaborate script used is the Jaina Devanāgarī script, which is here like calligraphy. There are a few notable features of this script.

Firstly, it is an old type in the way the sounds e and o are notated when used with a consonant, known as pṛṣṭhamātrā script.

There are red vertical lines within the text marking out verse divisions. Single red vertical lines indicate where a verse is divided in two, while double red vertical lines are found at the end of the verse.