The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Manuscript of the Five Protections (Pancharaksha)

Manuscript of the Five Protections (Pancharaksha)

Thursday, August 2, 1117 (Year 39 of Ramapala, reign 1078/79–at least 1130)
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on 89 palm leaves
Overall: 5.7 x 54.6 cm (2 1/4 x 21 1/2 in.)
On Loan from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 16.2014
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Seeing the painting of each goddess is as efficacious as reading the text.

Description

This manuscript consists of five separate texts, each personified by the figure of a Spell Queen. The texts contain protective spells along with ritual instructions and stories about how the Buddha taught the spells to his followers.

The colors of the figures correspond to those of a tantric Buddhist mandala, or diagram of space. White indicates the center, followed by green, red, yellow, and blue for north, west, south, and east, implying that the protections extend to all directions.
  • 1960s
    Shirley M. Black, Nepal
    1996–2009
    (Sam Fogg, London, England, sold to the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection)
    2009–
    The Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, Beverly Hills, CA
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Shirley M. Black, "An Early Nepalese Palm-Leaf Manuscript," Oriental Art 13, no.  2 (1967): 107. 
    2 Eva Allinger and Gudrun Melzer, "A Pancaraksa Manuscript from Year 39 of the Reign of Ramapala," Artibus Asiae 70, no. 2 (2010): 387.
  • Black, Shirley M. "An Early Nepalese Palm-Leaf Manuscript." Oriental Art 13, no. 2 (1967): 107–112.
    Fogg, Sam. Indian Paintings and Manuscripts, Catalogue 21 (London, 1999),6–7.
    Fogg, Sam. Tibetan Manuscripts, Catalogue 22 (London, 2001), 22, 23.
    Fogg, Sam. Dreams, Devotion, Romance, Catalogue 31 (London, 2006), 42.
    Allinger, Eva, and Gudrun Melzer. "A Pancaraksa Manuscript from Year 39 of the Reign of Ramapala." Artibus Asiae 70, no. 2 (2010): 387– 414.
    Kim, Jinah. "A Book of Buddhist Goddesses: Illustrated Manuscripts of the Pancaraksa Sutra and Their Ritual Use," Artibus Asiae 70, no. 2 (2010): 259–329.
    Hori, Shin'ichirо̄. "On the Exact Date of the Pancaraksa Manuscript Copied in the Regnal Year 39 of Ramapala in the Catherine Glynn Benkaim Collection." Bulletin of the International Institute for Buddhist Studies 2 (2019): 51–56.
    Mace, Sonya Rhie. “Clearing the Course: Folio 348 of the Nepalese Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Religions 2020, 11(4), 183. Reproduced: Fig. 11 doi.org
  • Text and Image in Southern Asia​ (Indian Painting and Himalayan rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-March 5, 2023).
    Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Manuscript of the Five Protections (Pancharaksha)|url=false|author=|year=Thursday, August 2, 1117 (Year 39 of Ramapala, reign 1078/79–at least 1130)|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/16.2014