The Brahman Kamatha performs austerities with fire while the Jain teacher Parshvanatha tries to save a snake from the fire, from a manuscript of the Kalpasutra (Book of Ritual)

The life stories of some of the twenty-four Jain teachers are among the subjects contained in the Kalpasutra, an important text still recited by Jain monks in an annual festival that occurs during the rainy season. This manuscript page depicts an event in the life of the twenty-third Jain teacher, Parshvanatha. (A sculpture of him can be seen in Gallery 3).

The upper half of the painting shows Kamatha, a Hindu Brahman, performing austerities with five types of fiery heat. He is seated amid four fires. The fifth fire, the scorching sun, is not depicted. In the lower half of the painting, an axe-wielding servant frees a snake as Parshavanatha, who had realized that a family of snakes was trapped in one of the fire logs, looks upon the scene from his horse. The Jain teachers were models of strict self-denial, and the writer of the Kalpasutra appears to have wanted to highlight the hypocrisy of other ascetic practices. In this story, for instance, JainismÆs teachings of nonviolence toward all living creatures is contrasted with the BrahmanÆs disregard for such life as he performs his austerities.

This page derives its elongated horizontal format from that of earlier manuscripts that were composed of long narrow strips of palm leaves. The three red circles across the center recall holes for the binding cords with which these earlier manuscripts were held together. A damaged Sanskrit inscription at the upper-right corner of the page briefly identifies the illustration. It is an instructional note to the painter, as scribes typically completed the text of the manuscript first, leaving a blank area for painters to later fill in.