id:			117658
accession number:	1938.301.189.b
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.301.189.b
updated:		2023-05-04 14:25:12.617000

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). Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Painting: Nepal, Kathmandu. Gum tempera, paper, and colors on wood; overall: 6.5 x 57 x 1.5 cm (2 9/16 x 22 7/16 x 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.301.189.b

title:				Bottom cover, from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)
creation date earliest:		1119
creation date latest:		1119
current location:		237 Himalayan
creditline:			Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Painting: Nepal, Kathmandu
technique:	Gum tempera, paper, and colors on wood
department:	Indian and Southeast Asian Art
collection:	Nepalese Art
type:		Painting
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Overall: 6.5 x 57 x 1.5 cm (2 9/16 x 22 7/16 x 9/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Stories From Storage
	opening date:   2021-02-07T05:00:00
	<i>Stories From Storage</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* <em>Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942</em>. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942).

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PROVENANCE

	(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
	date: ?–1938
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1938–
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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

digital description:
Palm-leaf manuscripts in the <em>pothi </em>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, <em>pothi </em>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.

wall description:
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.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Lee, Sherman E. <em>Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942</em>. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942.
	page number: 	Mentioned: cat. no. 24, p. 24; Reproduced: cat. no. 24, p. 47
	url:		

	The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
	page number: 	Mentioned: cat. no. 754
	url:		https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n136

	Marcus, Margaret F. “Sculptures from Bihar and Bengal.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>, vol. 54, no. 8, 1967, pp. 240–262.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 253, fig. 11; Reproduced: p. 252
	url:		www.jstor.org/stable/25152173

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.189.b/1938.301.189.b_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.189.b/1938.301.189.b_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.189.b/1938.301.189.b_full.tif