The barely legible caption in the upper-right corner says: Paṃcāgni or 'five fires'. However, this does not match the image, but refers to another episode in the life of Pārśvanātha or Lord Pārśva, where a Hindu ascetic called Kamaṭha practises the penance of the five fires.
The picture has two scenes, each depicting different stages in Prince Pārśva’s rejection of the world to become a monk.
A richly jewelled figure dressed in elaborate clothing sits on an ornate throne. An old white-bearded man stands on the right. Two small figures stand at the top.
The large figure is Prince Pārśva, shown with all his worldly privileges. The old man represents the poor. The two men at the top may be the Laukāntika gods.
The Laukāntika gods have come to awaken Pārśva spiritually and inspire him to give up his possessions. They exclaim:
Victory be to the joy of the world!
Victory be to one with auspicious marks!
Glory be to thee, oh bull among best kṣatriyas
Awake, oh Lord, Master of the Universe!
Establish religion and order
For the well-being of all living beings.
Then Pārśva knows that the time is right for him to renounce the worldly life. He spends the following year giving all his possessions to the poor.
On the left side a male figure wearing a single garment sits under a tree. He catches his long hair in his hand. On the right is a man with four hands seated on a throne.
The figure on the left is Pārśva, who has now given up all the possessions of a prince. Even so, he is often shown in pictures as keeping his jewellery. Sitting under an aśoka tree, he is about to pluck out his long hair in five handfuls. This is the symbolic gesture of giving up worldly life and entering religious life. Jain monks and nuns still perform this act of dīkṣā today.
The figure watching him is the god Śakra, who is present at the key points of Pārśva's life. Deities are often depicted with four or more hands in Jain art. Here Śakra is shown with a pair of his hands ready to receive the hair of the future Jina.
Pārśva performs his initiation ceremony in public in a park outside the city of Bārāṇasī. According to some sources, this park is on slightly raised ground. This is symbolised here by the bottom row, which represents mountain peaks.
The long protruding eye is a typical feature of western Indian painting. Its origin is not clearly known.
Some of the other elements of the picture are ordinary features of a manuscript, while others indicate that Kalpa-sūtra manuscripts are special objects.
The bottom of the right margin contains the number 55, which is the folio number.
The aim of making the manuscript a valuable and remarkable object in itself is signalled by the:
The three ornamental diamonds along the central horizontal plane are symbolic reminders of the way in which manuscripts were bound at one time. Strings through three holes in the paper were used to thread together the loose folios so the reader could turn them over easily. The diamonds are in the places where the holes would once have been.
Three diamonds mean a verso side.
The elaborate script used is the Jaina Devanāgarī script, which is here like calligraphy. It is used for writing numerous Indian languages, here for Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit.
There are a few notable features of this script, which:
In this particular folio, xra6 is written in the left-hand margin next to line 6. This indicates that the syllable ra must be inserted in that line. Here it refers to the ra in Bāṇarasiṃ – on the right side, after the second vertical red line – which seems to replace an earlier syllable.
The Kalpa-sūtra is the most frequently illustrated text of the Śvetāmbara sect. It is read and recited by monks in the festival of Paryuṣaṇ, which takes place in August to September each year.
The first part of the Kalpa-sūtra deals with the lives of the Jinas, especially Mahāvīra, Pārśva, Nemi and Ṛṣabha. It features almost identical stories of their births, lives as princes, renunciation, enlightenment and final emancipation.
The second part – Sthavirāvali – is a praise of the early teachers of Jainism. The third part – Sāmācārī – deals with particular monastic rules to be followed during the rainy season.
[Before the Venerable Ascetic Pārśva renounced the life of a householder, he possessed] supreme, unlimited knowledge and intuition, etc up to [so] he distributed presents among indigent persons. In the second month of winter, in the third fortnight, the dark [fortnight] of [the] month [of] Pauṣya, on the eleventh day of this fortnight of [the] month [of] Pauṣya, in the middle of the night, on his palanquin called Viśālā, with a train of gods, men and Asuras, he went right through the town of Beneras to the park called Āśramapada, and proceeded to the excellent tree Aśoka
Translation by Hermann Jacobi
1. aṇuttare āhohie taṃ c’eva savvaṃ jāva dāṇaṃ dāiyāṇaṃ
2. paribhāittā / je se hemaṃtāṇaṃ / ducce māse tacce pakkhe
3. posa-bahule / tassa ṇaṃ posa-bahulassa / ikkāra-
4. sī-divaseṇaṃ / puvv’-aṇha-kāla-samayaṃsi vi-
5. sālāe / sibiyāe sa-deva-maṇuyāsurā-
6. e / parisāe taṃ cc’eva savvaṃ nayaraṃ / Bāṇārasiṃ nagariṃ majjhaṃ
7. majjheṇaṃ / niggacchai, 2ttā / jeṇ’ eva āsama-pae u/jjāṇe
8. jeṇ’eva asoga-vara-pāyave teṇ’eva uvāgacchai 2ttā
This illustrated page from a 15th-century manuscript of the Kalpa-sūtra is provided by the National Gallery of Australia. At the beginning of the section dealing with the 22nd Jina, Ariṣṭanemi, also called Nemi, the painting shows the famous episode of Prince Nemi's decision to renounce worldly life just before his wedding. He is so appalled by the distress of the animals due to be killed for his wedding feast that he decides to become a monk.
http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?View=LRG&IRN=147981&PICTAUS=TRUE
This highly decorated page from a 15th-century manuscript of the Kalpa-sūtra is provided by the National Gallery of Australia. A young man performs the rite of keśa-loca – ‘pulling out of the hair’ – which indicates indifference to the body. It is part of the initiation ceremony of dīkṣā, in which an initiate renounces the world and becomes a mendicant. He is watched by Śakra, king of the gods who takes an active role in the lives of the 24 Jinas.
http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=177852&View=LRG
This manuscript of the Kalpa-sūtra is fully digitised on the Gallica Bibliothèque numérique website, part of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library of France) in Paris. Though the website is available in English, the information about the artefact is in French.
This rare palm-leaf page in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art comes from an early 14th-century manuscript of the Śvetāmbara scripture of the Kalpa-sūtra. The picture illustrates the episode where the antelope-headed god Hariṇaigameṣin transfers the embryo of the Jina-to-be Mahāvīra from the brahmin lady Devānandā to the kṣatriya queen Triśalā.
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/131608.html?mulR=656|4
The National Gallery of Australia offers an elaborately illustrated page from a 15th-century manuscript of the Kalpa-sūtra. The 23rd Jina Pārśva sits in the lotus posture of meditation. He is easily identifiable from his seven-headed snake headdress.
http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=177853&View=LRG
This illustration is from a page of the Śvetāmbara scripture of the Kalpa-sūtra in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It shows the last Jina, Mahāvīra, performing the rite of keśa-loca – ‘pulling out of the hair’ – which indicates indifference to the body. It is part of the initiation ceremony of dīkṣā, in which an initiate renounces the world and becomes a mendicant. He is watched by Śakra, king of the gods, who takes an active role in the lives of the 24 Jinas.
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/105108.html?mulR=656|9
British Library. Or. 11921. Unknown author. 1488
Wellcome Trust Library. Gamma 3. Unknown author. 1503
British Library. Or. 13701. Sukha-sāgara for the commentary. 17th to 18th centuries
Victoria and Albert Museum. IM 6-1931. Unknown author. Circa 1490
Wellcome Trust Library. Gamma 3. Unknown author. 1503
British Library. Or. 12744. 1522. Unknown author.
British Library. I.O. San. 3177. Unknown author. 1437
Gamma 453. Wellcome Trust Library. Unknown author. 1512