The Wheel of Horoscopes

This page serves as a blank protective leaf, intended to shield the inscribed content of the manuscript from wear, light, and pests. The surface consists of a textured, ochre-colored paper this yellow-orange pigment often suggests the paper was treated with haritala (orpiment), a natural arsenic sulfide used in traditional Indian papermaking to prevent insect damage and fungal growth.

The visual design is simple and functional:

• Two horizontal red bands run across the width of the page these decorative stripes, likely made from cinnabar or red lead, are a common aesthetic feature in North Indian and Kashmiri manuscript traditions, often used to frame the beginning or end of a codex.

There is no historical text inscribed on this specific leaf.