End of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines; Haribhadra’s final remarks; beginning of colophon, folio 187 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Byzantine icon painting Classical Antiquity Religious

Dominant colour

End of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines; Haribhadra’s final remarks; beginning of colophon, folio 187 (verso), from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra) is a 14 unspecified by Unknown, a Byzantine icon painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 14 · Byzantine icon painting
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a single page from a very old book, filled with neat black letters and a small, bright painting at the top. The colors are still vivid—deep reds, blues, and golds—showing a scene with monks and sacred objects. This page marks the end of a long Buddhist text, copied by hand in 1119. It’s part of a tradition where scribes preserved wisdom in both Sanskrit and a simpler language, Prakrit. The painting isn’t just decoration; it helps tell the story of the words below. To see more pages like this, look up *eastern india, bihar, vikramashila monastery. painting: nepal, kathmandu*.

The story of this work

Overview

Haribhadra lived in the 800s, and the final remarks to his commentary on the Ratnagunasamcaya-gatha were copied at the end of this manuscript. The Ratnagunasamcaya-gatha distills the teaching of the Sanskrit Perfection of Wisdom into Prakrit verses.