Cleveland Museum of Art

Folio 141 (recto), from a Kalpa-sutra and Story of Kalakacharya

Date: 1287
Medium: gum tempera and ink on palm leaf
Culture: Western India, Gujarat
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

Palm leaf was the preferred material for sacred texts before the 1400s in India. The text here was often appended to the Kalpa-sutra, the most sacred book of Jainism. This story concerns the life of a Jain teacher named Kalaka, a prince who developed the ability to work magic after he become a monk, inspired by the teachings of a holy man. The painting on this page shows a monk clad in white, indicating his affiliation with the Shvetambara (“white clad”) branch of Jainism. It is the second to the last page of the manuscript and includes the beginning of the colophon, which contains information about when and where this manuscript was produced.

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