Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
Unknown Artist
Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)
Medium
Covers: Gum tempera, colors, and paper on wood; pages: gum tempera and ink on palm leaves
Dimensions
6.5 × 57 × 1.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1938.301
About this artwork
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 obj...