Artwork Page for Prajnaparamita flanked by two female figures, folio 1 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Details / Information for Prajnaparamita flanked by two female figures, folio 1 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Prajnaparamita flanked by two female figures, folio 1 (verso), 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. Painting: Nepal, Kathmandu

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Medium
Gum tempera and ink on palm leaf
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.b
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Although barely visible now, delicate diaphanous scarves are draped around the arms of all three figures.

Description

In the center of the first folio, the personification of the texts found within the manuscript is shown as a crowned four-armed goddess holding a rosary, palm leaf, and giving a mudra, or symbolic hand gesture, indicating that she is in the process of teaching. The haloed Prajnaparamita’s golden skin tone and accoutrements showcase the image’s self-reflexive relationship to the light-colored palm leaf that was used to make this book. The text on this leaf is not the Perfection of Wisdom itself, but rather a preamble of praises to the goddess known as the Prajnaparamita-stotra of Rahula. These hymns would have continued onto folio 2 of the manuscript, which was unfortunately lost before the volume was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art.
A horizontally oriented palm leaf painted in gum tempera and ink features six blocks of black script and three square illustrations. In the center, a light-skinned Prajnaparamita sits cross-legged against a red background, framed by a circular halo. Toward our left and right ends, light-skinned women occupy squares within the text. Two circular binding holes punctuate the leaf. Dense rows of black script fill the remaining blocks across the long, weathered surface.

Prajnaparamita flanked by two female figures, folio 1 (verso), 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. Painting: Nepal, Kathmandu

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