Bottom cover, 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 Ashv

Bottom cover, 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)) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Palm-leaf manuscripts in the pothi format are recognizable by their long and horizontal shapes. In contrast to Western-style books that require one to turn the pages left-to-right or right-to-left, pothi are read by flipping the pages with a vertical motion. The palm-leaf pages would have been bound together by a cord attached to a peg that was run through the two binding holes on the top and bottom covers. The spot for the peg is still visible on the left side of this cover. When not in use, the manuscript would have been wrapped in ribbons and textiles that protected it from dust, moisture, and pests.

Object facts

• Title: Bottom cover, from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
• Date: Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)
• Culture: Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Painting: Nepal, Kathmandu
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, paper, and colors on wood
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.5 x 57 x 1.5 cm (2 9/16 x 22 7/16 x 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Nepalese Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1938.301.189.b

A detail from the museum

Wooden covers helped to protect the fragile palm-leaf pages and keep the leaves compact.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Marcus, Margaret F. “Sculptures from Bihar and Bengal.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 8, 1967, pp. 240–262.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.