Manuscript with scenes from the story of the holy monk Phra Malai

Inscription on the left: A family listens respectfully to Phra Malai's teaching
Inscription on the right: A rural house
Though it was known in neighboring countries, the story of Phra Malai achieved its greatest popularity and influence in Siam. In this story a pious and compassionate monk descends to hell to give comfort to sufferers there. After returning to earth he is presented a bunch of lotuses collected by a poor man. Phra Malai ascends to Indra's heaven to pay homage and offer the lotuses to the stupa in which is enshrined the hair that the Buddha-to-be cut off centuries earlier, after leaving his princely life in his father's palace. Phra Malai and Indra converse on how merit is accumulated, and the monk eventually has the chance to meet Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. Maitreya gives Phra Malai messages for the inhabitants of earth on how they may progress spiritually, make merit, and benefit further from Maitreya's teaching when he eventually comes to earth for his last existence, during which he will achieve buddhahood.
Manuscripts with paintings of the story of Phra Malai do not seem to have been created before the late 1700s, but they were very popular in the succeeding century. This manuscript, with an inscribed date equivalent to 1791, is the earliest securely datable Phra Malai manuscript known. An inscription on the manuscript reads:
This Phra Malai volume has been commissioned for merit making by Grandmother Thong and her child [or children] in support of the holy religion, at the cost of [?], [and] in the hope of happiness in future existences. May we be spared from misery! May [this donation] be a cause of reaching nirvana!
This book was dedicated in the year of the rat, fourth of the decade, after 2334 years of the Buddhist era had elapsed.