Page 8 - Bonhams, Images of Devotion, April 21 2021

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AN ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT OF THE ASHTASAHASRIKA
PRAJNAPARAMITA SUTRA
NEPAL, DATED 1562
Opaque watercolor and gold on black painted paper (nilapatra), with two
polychromed wood manuscript covers; total of 223 folios, 6 folios with an
illustration on one side.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16986
Folio: 12.5 x 51 cm (4 7/8 x 20 1/8 in.)
Cover: 12.7 x 52 cm (5 x 20 1/2 in.)

HKD80,000 - 120,000

尼泊爾 1562年 彩繪《小品般若波羅蜜經》

Written in 1562 during the reign of Mahendra Malla (1560-74), this well-preserved
manuscript was commissioned and donated by Dhavanasimha Tamrakara, son
of Ujotasimha, and his family. The manuscript’s 223 leaves, each bearing gold text
arranged in three columns, are enclosed within two polychromed wooden covers.
Each cover is decorated with large floral roundels and a border of lotus petals
of alternating colors.

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita (“The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand
Verses”) is a Mahayana Buddhist scripture generally accepted as the earliest of the
Prajnaparamita sutras. See a similar page from a 1671 Nepalese manuscript at the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (86.127.16).

Provenance
The Nyingjei Lam Collection 菩薩道收藏

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