The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 7, 2024

Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

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)
Covers: Gum tempera, colors, and paper on wood; pages: gum tempera and ink on palm leaves
Covers overall: 6.5 x 57 x 1.5 cm (2 9/16 x 22 7/16 x 9/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.301
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Books of the Perfection of Wisdom were worshiped as sacred objects and personified as the Goddess of Wisdom, Prajnaparamita, the mother of all Buddhas.

Description

The colophon at the end of the manuscript indicates that a monk from Nepal named Aryashrimittra traveled to a monastic university in India, where he commissioned this copy of a sacred Buddhist philosophical text. He then brought it with him back to Nepal, where Nepalese artists added paintings of Buddhist goddesses and bodhisattvas. The movement of monks and manuscripts between India and Nepal was the primary mechanism for the transmission of Buddhism to the Himalayas. This manuscript was an object of worship, once venerated alongside sacred Buddhist images. Devotional materials applied during ritual worship remain on the top of the book cover.
  • ?–1938
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1938–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Kramrisch, Stella. The Art of Nepal. New York: The Asia Society/Abrams, 1964. Reproduced: Figure 77, p. 103; mentioned: cat. no. 77a and 77b, pp. 43 and 144.
    Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1994. 5th edition. Reproduced: color plate 10, p. 202; mentioned: p.134.
    Hickmann, Regina, Heinz Mode, and Siegfried Mahn. Miniaturen, Volks- und Gegenwartskunst Indiens. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann Buch und Kunstverlag, 1975. Reproduced: Figure 1; mentioned: p.14.
    Pal, Pratapaditya. The Arts of Nepal, Part II: Painting. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978. Mentioned: p. 32, reproduced: fig. 11.
    Meahl, Katherine. 2004. “Influence néware dans la peinture tibétaine entre le XIe et le XIVe siècle.” Dossiers d’Archéologie 293 (2004): 86–91. Reproduced: 87; mentioned: p. 86.
    Kim, Jinah. Garland of Visions: Color, Tantra, and a Material History of Indian Painting. Oakland, University of California Press, 2021. Reproduced: Figure 2.3, p. 66; Mentioned: pp. 64-65.
    Hollis, Howard. "A Nepalese Manuscript." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 3 (1939): 31-33. Mentioned: pp. 31–33. www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942. Mentioned: cat. no. 24, p. 24; Reproduced: cat. no. 24, p. 47.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 754. archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 233. archive.org
    Marcus, Margaret F. “Sculptures from Bihar and Bengal.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 8 (1967): pp. 240–262. Mentioned: p. 253, fig. 11; Reproduced: p. 252. 25152173
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 233. archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 296. archive.org
    Kim, Jinah. "Painted Palm-Leaf Manuscripts and the Art of the Book in Medieval South Asia." Archives of Asian Art 65, no. 1 & 2 (2015). Mentioned: pp. 57-86; Reproduced: p. 62, fig.5; p. 63, fig. 6 & 7.
    O’Mara, Reed. “‘On Golden Tablets’: The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Manuscript as a Self-Referential Icon.” Religions 11, no. 274 (2020): 1-19. Reproduced: pp. 2, 4-10, 14-15, figs. 1-16. www.mdpi.com
  • 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).
    Art of Nepal. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (May 7-August 30, 1964).
    Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942).
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Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1938.301