There is no picture on this folio but it is notable because it is a rare example of a palm-leaf manuscript. Early Jain writings were inscribed on palm leaves but comparatively few have survived to the present day. Natural materials such as plant matter frequently do not survive for long periods of time, particularly in tropical climates. Palm leaf has continued to be largely used as writing material in south or eastern India, but not in western India. Examples of palm-leaf manuscripts from western India are especially scarce in libraries outside India.

The text belongs to Śvetāmbara Jain scriptures. It is an old technical treatise for monks dating back to approximately the 6th century. It deals with the punishments a monk must face if he breaks a vow or regulation that governs the mendicant lifestyle.

Other visual elements

There is often a double foliation numbering in Jain manuscripts. Here it is in the form of letters in the left-hand margin and ias numbers in the right-hand margin. These are both placed inside a red decorative disk.

In the centre is a hole through which a string was threaded to hold together a number of palm leaves that make up a manuscript. It has a rough oval of orange pigment around it.

Script

There are a few interesting characteristics of the script used here:

• the elaborate script used for the main text is the Jaina Devanāgarī script, used for writing numerous Indian languages, but here for Ardhamāgadhī and Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit
• this is an old type in the way the sounds e and o are notated when used with a consonant – this is known as pṛṣṭhamātrā script
• the characters covered with orange pigment are the verse numbers – here 68 to 73 – which are at the end of each stanza, a reversal of the Western practice.