The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

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

Palm leaf backed with yellow paper
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.a
Location: Not on view

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.
  • ?–1938
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1938–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned: cat. no. 754 archive.org
    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. Mentioned: p. 1
  • {{cite web|title=Folio 1 (recto), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)|url=false|author=|year=Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1938.301.1.a