This page consists of stanzas 30 to 32 of this Sanskrit version of the popular story of Kālaka.

The text on this page recounts how the eminent Jain monk Kālaka and his allies go to India, where Kālaka demonstrates his powers.

One day Kālaka notices that the Sāhi looks depressed. On asking why, he hears that the Sāhi has received a letter from his overlord ordering him to kill himself and send his head. Kālaka asks whether the Sāhi is the only target of his enemy’s anger and comes to know that 95 Śaka kings are in the same situation.

Following Kālaka’s advice, all the kings depart for the land of Hinduka, meaning the country of the lower Indus river. Accompanied by Kālaka, they reach Saurāṣṭra in Gujarat, where they spend the rainy season. When the monsoon ends, the monk advises the Śaka kings to go to Ujjayinī, capture Gardabhilla, seize his kingdom and share it among themselves.

When they reply that they have no more supplies, Kālaka sprinkles clay bricks with magic powder, turning them into gold. The Śakas can use the gold to buy more supplies and advance against Gardabhilla.

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 diamond in the centre

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:

• 30 on line 2
• 31 on line 4.

This means that this page has a large part of verse 30, all of verse 31 and a large part of verse 32.

The bottom of the right margin contains the number 191, 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.