Prajnaparamita ﬂanked by two female ﬁgures, folio 1 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra) Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Painting: Nepal, Kathmandu

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

Leaf: 5.4 x 54.3 cm (2 1/8 x 21 3/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.301.1.b

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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.