Kalāpustaka (MS Add.864)

This beautifully crafted 17th-century Nepalese accordion book consists completely of polychrome illustrations. The paintings represent stories of both sacred and secular nature, often narrated along multiple pages, sometimes divided in two or three frames. The stories are mostly taken from Brahmanical sources (the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Vetālapañcaviṃśati) with the exception of the Buddhist Kinnarī Jātaka. The pictures often have captions in Sanskrit, sometimes mixed with Newari words, in Nepālākṣarā script. The manuscript was made around the year 1600 and the quality of its painting has led to scholars to suggest it may have been a royal commission, probably of king Jayajitāmitramalla.