Page from a Kalakacharyakatha Manuscript: Kalaka and the Saka Chief (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
The Kalakacharyakatha (Story of the Teacher Kalaka), a central Jain text, relates the exploits of the mythical monk Kalaka. Palm leaves in manuscripts had started to be replaced by paper around 1400. Pages became increasingly shorter and broader, and their once functional string holes were reduced to ornament. These illustrations are painted in an opulent, decorative, and rather coarsened version of the highly linear Western Indian style. The palette is typical of the mid-15th century, when blue was beginning to overtake red in prominence.
Kalaka and the Saka Chief, Much of the Kalakacharyakatha tells the story of Kalaka’s attempts to avenge the abduction of his beautiful sister, a Jain nun, by King Gardabhilla of Ujjain. This page shows Kalaka enlisting the aid of a Saka chief in this enterprise. The monk sits opposite the chief, who is enthroned in a palatial structure with a sword in his right hand and a bow on his back. The chief is dressed in Central Asian garb, evocative of the Sakas’ origins beyond the Indus River.
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