Artwork Page for Folio 1 (recto), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Details / Information for Folio 1 (recto), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Folio 1 (recto), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)

Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Paper: Nepal, Kathmandu

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Medium
Palm leaf backed with yellow paper
Measurements
Leaf: 5.4 x 54.3 cm (2 1/8 x 21 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.301.1.a
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Yellow Nepalese paper functions as an insect-deterrent.

Description

Sometime between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Nepalese paper known as lokta, made from the bark of high-elevation evergreen shrubs, was pasted to the first folio of this manuscript in order to prevent the delicate palm-leaf page from further deteriorating. Mantra syllables of invocation are written hastily in black ink. Like the Nepalese numbers found throughout the rest of the manuscript, the yellow paper is another indication that the Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines was held in a Nepalese monastery after being copied in eastern India.
A horizontally long palm leaf and yellow paper manuscript folio features a mottled, muted yellow surface detailed with dark reddish-brown circular stains. Two circular holes are punched through the material toward either end, flanking a small row of black script centered between them. The folio exhibits a visible texture and slightly worn edges, oriented flat.

Folio 1 (recto), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)

Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Paper: Nepal, Kathmandu

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