Page 45 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art September 2013

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An illustrated manuscript page
Nepal, 13th century
Distemper on palm leaf; with two illuminations and five lines of
transitional Nagari script; with benign grahas depicted as elegant male
divinities holding blue lotuses.
1 7/8 x 11 in. (4.7 x 27.7 cm)
$8,000 - 12,000

This folio comes from a collection of dharanis or incantations. Traditionally
dharanis are hymns addressed to the various Tantric Buddhist divinities in
praise of them or for protection against various ills. Very few illuminated
manuscripts of such texts survive from eastern India. Two leaves commissioned
by a Nepalese visitor to the great monastery of Nalanda in Bihar (circa 1075
CE) with miniatures including a Prajnaparamita, Manjusri and scenes from
the life of the Buddha are held in the Los Angeles County Art Museum (see,
Pal, Indian Painting, Los Angeles, 1993, no. 3). Later manuscripts, almost
exclusively from Nepal, normally show the divinity addressed, who are often
minor divinities more akin to nature spirits as in this leaf.

The recto has a brief colophon at the end of the Candrapane Graha
Matrika Dharani, a hymn addressed to the mother of the graha
Candrapani. Grahas are malevolent spirits who cause illnesses, here
appearing benign. The text is couched in the traditional form of Buddhist
sutras with the Buddha himself expounding the doctrine to his intimates
on the correct worship of the grahas (grahanam puja).

The fine gold illumination in this leaf is remarkable, and reflects the high
regard in which Buddhist manuscripts were held. The depiction of the
seated Buddha, with an ornate crown and armbands and displaying the
mudra of preaching the law, is typical of Nepalese depictions.

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A double-sided ritual thyasapu manual of iconographic illustrations
Nepal 19th century
44 pages with 260 illustrations, mineral pigments on paper: many pages
with three deities in union with their consorts, such as the eight Mother
Goddesses, the primordial goddess Guhyeshvari, and a fully developed
iconography of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi; Newari script below.
Each page: 11 5/8 x 6 1/4 in. (29.5 x 15.87 cm)
$4,000 - 6,000

Compare with a ritual manual in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1994-
148-617) and a book of iconographic drawings in the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art (M.82.169.2).

Provenance:
Private Californian Collection
Acquired from Dr. Myer in 1969

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