The five Tathagatas and their female counterparts
[Dharani manuscript].
Oblong, 280 x 75 mm. 163 ff. in (1), 162 hand-numbered folios. Manuscript on yellow-painted paper. Arranged Tibetan pecha style, loose between two boards. Black Nawar script in five lines. Illustrated with 17 miniatures, including 2 full-page paintings, one directly on the inside of board, and the second on a leaf possibly previously affixed to front board. Leaves apparently deliberately smudged with dots of red and yellow ink. Original red-painted boards.
€ 7,500.00
A complete Buddhist manuscript in Nepalese Newar script, illustrated with seventeen miniatures. The manuscript itself comprises a collection of sutra and mantra divided into six sections, each beginning with one or usually two hand-painted miniatures. These show a range of deities, including the five principal Buddhas (Mahavairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi respectively) and various boddhisatvas and Buddhist deities, like the wrathful, blue, and many-armed Wisdom King. One particular practice associated with Nepalese Buddhist manuscripts is the painting of miniatures directly onto the interior of the two carved wooden boards which bookend the manuscript, which is found here. On one board the figures are painted directly onto the wood, where on another the same scene is depicted on paper, likely previously pasted onto the inside cover.
Leaves deliberately smudged with bright pigments; light rubbing to covers and miniatures. Very well preserved, complete with original hand-numbering to folios.
