id: 539039 accession number: 1938.301.a share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.301.a updated: 2023-08-24 01:52:14.616000 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 title: Top 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: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- 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 department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Indian Art - Medieval type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Covers 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: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942). --- 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: --- fun fact: Wooden covers of pothi manuscripts are called patli. digital 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’s 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’s northward journey from the Vikramashila Monastery in eastern India to the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. wall description: According to the inscription at the end of the manuscript, a monk from Nepal 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS 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: 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: 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: page number: url: Meahl, Katherine. 2004. “Influence néware dans la peinture tibétaine entre le XIe et le XIVe siècle.” Dossiers d’Archéologie 293 (2004): 86–91. page number: Reproduced: 87; mentioned: p. 86. url: 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: Hollis, Howard. "A Nepalese Manuscript." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 3 (1939): 31-33. page number: Mentioned: pp. 31–33. url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137997 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: 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 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 Marcus, Margaret F. “Sculptures from Bihar and Bengal.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 8 (1967): pp. 240–262. page number: Mentioned: p. 253, fig. 11; Reproduced: p. 252. url: www.jstor.org/stable/25152173 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 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 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: O’Mara, Reed. “‘On Golden Tablets’: The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Manuscript as a Self-Referential Icon.” 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 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.a/1938.301.a_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.a/1938.301.a_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.301.a/1938.301.a_full.tif