Collection Online as of October 3, 2023

Four bodhisattvas and two attendants flanking Vajrasattva, 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)

Part of a set. See all set records

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.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1938.301.189.a

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The diamond pattern at the holes references the ribbons and cords that would have bound the book together.

Provenance

?–1938

(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1938–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

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. Reproduced: Figures 13, 14, and 15, p. 10 and 14.

Pal, Pratapaditya. The Arts of Nepal, Part II: Painting. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978. Mentioned: p. 32, reproduced: fig. 11.

Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942. Mentioned: cat. no. 24, p. 24; Reproduced: cat. no. 24, p. 47

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned: cat. no. 754 archive.org

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

Exhibition history

Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942).