Ratnasambhava, Akshobhya, Vairochana with attendants, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi, Top cover, from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

Ratnasambhava, Akshobhya, Vairochana with attendants, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi, Top 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:

The inner side of the top cover is fully painted with images of the Five Cosmic Buddhas of Esoteric Buddhism. Each one has a different color, meaningful hand gesture, and is associated with a spatial direction. In the center is the white Vairochana holding his hands in the enlightenment mudra. On either side of the binding holes are the other four Cosmic Buddhas Akshobyha (blue, earth-touching mudra, east) and Amitabha (red, meditation mudra, west), and on the ends are Ratnasambhava (gold, gift-giving mudra, south) and Amoghasiddhi (green, fear-not mudra, north). The top side is covered with ritual materials indicating that this book was once an object of worship.

Object facts

• Title: Ratnasambhava, Akshobhya, Vairochana with attendants, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi, Top 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. 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.b

A detail from the museum

The Five Tathagatas could be the source of visions that would help Buddhist practitioners on the path to enlightenment.

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.