The figures represented in the miniatures include also the embodied Perfection of Wisdom goddess ( Prajñāparamitā) herself on the Vulture Peak Mountain near Rājagṛha, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Māgadha, in today’s Bihar state. The text is lavishly illustrated by a total of 85 miniature paintings: each one is an exquisite representation of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (beings who resolve to achieve Buddhahood in order to help other sentient beings) – including the historical Buddha Śākyamuni and Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. Its textual content and illustrations, and the skills and materials that went into its production, reveal the ways in which Nepal was one of the most important hubs within a Buddhist world that spanned from Sri Lanka to China. The Perfection of Wisdom is also an important historical document that provides valuable information about the dynastic history of medieval Nepal. Manuscripts produced in Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia during the period from the 5 th until the 19 th century are evidence of the thriving ‘cult of the book’ that was the subject of a recent exhibition at Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Pañcarakṣā), a corpus of scriptures that includes spells, enumerations of benefits and ritual instructions for use, particularly sacred in Nepal. Examples include numerous manuscripts of the Five Protections (Skt. Many manuscripts were used as protective amulets and installed in shrines and altars in the home of Buddhist followers. The presence of the Perfection of Wisdom, safe in the temperature-controlled environment of one of the world’s greatest libraries, many thousands of miles from its birthplace, is especially poignant at a time when the people of Nepal are struggling to survive in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.īuddhist texts are more than scriptures: they are sacred objects in themselves. Over the past 140 years, it has been studied by some of the foremost specialists of the medieval Buddhist world.Ī digitisation project has now made the manuscript accessible online to scholars worldwide and has revealed fresh evidence about the origins of some of the earliest Buddhist texts. Today the fabulous manuscript that would have taken Sujātabhadra and fellow craftsman many months - perhaps even a year - to complete is held by the Manuscripts Room at Cambridge University Library. The entire palm leaf manuscript is held between richly ornate wooden covers. Each leaf is punctured by a pair of neat holes, a reminder that the palm leaf pages were originally bound together with cords passing through these holes. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight-Thousand Stanzas is written in Sanskrit, one the of the world’s most ancient languages, using both sides of 222 oblong sheets made from palm leaf (the first missing sheet has been replaced with a paper sheet). Sujātabhadra was a skilled craftsman working in or around Kathmandu – a city that has been one of the hubs of the Buddhist world from around 500 CE right up until the present day. One thousand years ago, a scribe called Sujātabhadra put his name to a manuscript known as the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight-Thousand Stanzas (Skt.
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