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)): Art, History 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:

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.

Object facts

• Title: 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. Paintings: Nepal, Kathmandu
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Covers: Gum tempera, colors, and paper on wood; pages: gum tempera and ink on palm leaves
• Dimensions: Covers overall: 6.5 x 57 x 1.5 cm (2 9/16 x 22 7/16 x 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Medieval
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1938.301

A detail from the museum

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

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kramrisch, Stella. The Art of Nepal. New York: The Asia Society/Abrams, 1964.
• Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1994. 5th edition.
• Hickmann, Regina, Heinz Mode, and Siegfried Mahn. Miniaturen, Volks- und Gegenwartskunst Indiens. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann Buch und Kunstverlag, 1975.

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.