{
"data": {
"id": 539039,
"accession_number": "1938.301.a",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "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). Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Paintings: Nepal, Kathmandu. Covers: Gum tempera, colors, and paper on wood; pages: gum tempera and ink on palm leaves; covers 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.a",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Top cover, from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)",
"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,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Eastern India, Bihar, Vikramashila Monastery. Paintings: Nepal, Kathmandu"
],
"technique": "Covers: Gum tempera, colors, and paper on wood; pages: gum tempera and ink on palm leaves",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Medieval",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Covers overall: 6.5 x 57 x 1.5 cm (2 9/16 x 22 7/16 x 9/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"covers overall": {
"height": 0.065,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.57,
"width_inch": 22,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"depth": 0.015,
"depth_inch": 0,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942).",
"opening_date": "1942-10-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?\u20131938",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1938\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Wooden covers of pothi manuscripts are called patli.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Pieces of paper, sandalwood paste, vermilion powder, and spices like turmeric and saffron were ritually added to the top cover of this manuscript during its veneration in ceremonies honoring the Buddha\u2019s teachings. Additionally, this wooden cover would have protected the fragile palm-leaf pages inside. A cord attached to a peg on the left side of the cover would have passed through the two binding holes and wrapped around the manuscript in order to evenly exert pressure and keep the leaves tight. The entire volume would have also been wrapped in cloth to further protect it from the elements and insect damage. Books in this format are very portable, as evidenced by the manuscript\u2019s northward journey from the Vikramashila Monastery in eastern India to the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117248320"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1938.301.a-top-cover-manuscript",
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1938.301.a-top-cover-from-a-man"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Kramrisch, Stella. The Art of Nepal. New York: The Asia Society/Abrams, 1964.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Figure 77, p. 103; mentioned: cat. no. 77a and 77b, pp. 43 and 144.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1994. 5th edition.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: color plate 10, p. 202; mentioned: p.134.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hickmann, Regina, Heinz Mode, and Siegfried Mahn. Miniaturen, Volks- und Gegenwartskunst Indiens. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann Buch und Kunstverlag, 1975.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Figure 1; mentioned: p.14.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": null,
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Meahl, Katherine. 2004. \u201cInfluence n\u00e9ware dans la peinture tib\u00e9taine entre le XIe et le XIVe si\u00e8cle.\u201d Dossiers d\u2019Arch\u00e9ologie 293 (2004): 86\u201391.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: 87; mentioned: p. 86.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kim, Jinah. Garland of Visions: Color, Tantra, and a Material History of Indian Painting. Oakland, University of California Press, 2021.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Figure 2.3, p. 66; Mentioned: pp. 64-65.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hollis, Howard. \"A Nepalese Manuscript.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 3 (1939): 31-33.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 31\u201333.",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137997"
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: cat. no. 24, p. 24; Reproduced: cat. no. 24, p. 47.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 754.",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n136"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 233.",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n257"
},
{
"citation": "Marcus, Margaret F. \u201cSculptures from Bihar and Bengal.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 8 (1967): pp. 240\u2013262.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 253, fig. 11; Reproduced: p. 252.",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25152173"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 233.",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n257"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 296.",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n316"
},
{
"citation": "Kim, Jinah. \"Painted Palm-Leaf Manuscripts and the Art of the Book in Medieval South Asia.\" Archives of Asian Art 65, no. 1 & 2 (2015).",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 57-86; Reproduced: p. 62, fig.5; p. 63, fig. 6 & 7.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "O\u2019Mara, Reed. \u201c\u2018On Golden Tablets\u2019: The Cleveland Museum of Art\u2019s A\u1e63\u1e6das\u0101hasrik\u0101 Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101 Manuscript as a Self-Referential Icon.\u201d Religions 11, no. 274 (2020): 1-19.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Figure 16, p. 15. Mentioned: pp. 14-15.",
"url": "https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/6/274"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.301.a",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.a/1938.301.a_web.jpg",
"width": "900",
"height": "134",
"filesize": "142473",
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.a/1938.301.a_print.jpg",
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.a/1938.301.a_full.tif",
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"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 539039,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1938-06-03T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1119,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "Sunday, September 14, 1119 (year 239 of the Newar Samvat in the month of Ashvina)",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "part",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "1938.301",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Book of Transcendental Wisdom: Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita",
"Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines: Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita",
"Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashta-sahasrika Prajnaparamita-Shastra)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 09:10:27.176000"
}
}