This page consists of stanzas 27 to 29 of this Sanskrit version of the popular story of Kālaka.

The text describes Kālaka's reception in the land of the Śakas.

The monk gains the respect of the local king, known as the Sāhi. He asks Kālaka why he is unhappy.

The monk tells him how he left Ujjayinī after failing to convince King Gardabhilla to release the kidnapped nun Sarasvatī. The Sāhi decides to help 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
• 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 diamond in the centre.

There is a single ornamental diamond because this is the recto 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:

• 27 at the end of line 1
• 28 on line 4
• 29 on the last line.

This means that this page contains the end of verse 27, all of verses 28 and 29, and the beginning of verse 30.

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.