About the Artwork
This manuscript — considered a physical embodiment of the Buddha's wisdom — is both an object of learning and one of devotion. Devotees study and recite its text, believed to be the Buddha's own words. The illustrations, which depict Buddhist deities and events from the Buddha's life, enhance the manuscript's sacred power. Hundreds of manuscripts like this one were produced in eastern India, an important hub for Buddhist scholars and pilgrims. At some point, a visiting devotee brought this manuscript to Nepal, where the covers were made centuries later. This cover, made for the top of the manuscript, bears traces of sacred substances applied to it over generations of worship.
Cover for a Manuscript of the "Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Verses"
15th - 16th century
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Nepalese
Unknown
Ink and paint on wood
Overall: 2 3/16 × 18 7/8 × 1/2 inches (5.5 × 48 × 1.3 cm)
Manuscripts
Asian Art
Gift of P. Jackson Higgs
27.586.251B
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Lee, Sherman E. "A Manuscript and a Bronze from Nepal." Bulletin of the DIA 21, no. 8 (May 1942): pp. 66-70 (ill.).
Kim, Jinah. “Emptiness on Palm Leaf: A Twelfth-century Illustrated Manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā." Bulletin of the DIA 82, no. 1/2 (2008): pp. 76-91.
Kim, Jinah. “Unheard Voices: Women’s Roles in Medieval Buddhist Artistic Production and Religious Practices in South Asia.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80, no. 1 (March 2012): pp. 207-213.
Kim, Jinah. Receptacle of the Sacred: Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult. Berkeley, 2013, pp. 55-56, 67, 78, 86, 263.
Bisulca, Christina and Christopher Foster. “Perfection of Wisdom - a Spectroscopic and Microscopic Analysis of a Twelfth-Century Buddhist Sūtra.” Bulletin of the DIA 92, no. 1/4 (2018): p. 76 (fig. 8).
Kim, Jinah. Garland of Visions: Color, Tantra, and a Material History of Painting. Oakland, 2021, pp. 122-126, (ill. fig. 3.9) p. 124.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Nepalese, Cover for a Manuscript of the "Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Verses", 15th - 16th century, ink and paint on wood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of P. Jackson Higgs, 27.586.251B.
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