PERFECTION OF WISDOM SUTRA IN TEN THOUSAND LINES

MS 2371
MS Short Title PERFECTION OF WISDOM SUTRA IN TEN THOUSAND LINES
Text PERFECTION OF WISDOM SUTRA IN TEN THOUSAND LINES. TRANSLATED FROM SANSKRIT BY THE INDIAN ACARYAS JINAMITRA AND SURENDVABODHI, TOGETHER WITH THE TIBETAN LOTSA BA YE-SHES-SDE
Description MS in Tibetan on thick paper stained black and varnished, Tibet, ca. 1400, 198 ff. (complete), 19x67 cm, single column, (13x58 cm), 9 lines in a formal Tibetan dbu can book script in gold, 4 opening pages with 3-4 lines in large ornamental script in gold.
Binding Tibet, ca. 1400, Poti with thick paper boards, the upper with a panel, deeply inset, with the title in 2 lines of 5 cm tall ornamental gold script, flanked by 2 fine miniatures, 10x9 cm, of the Buddha seated within a stupa, in full colours.
Context MSS of the Perfection of Wisdom in eight thousand lines, see MSS 2154 and 2167. Provenance: 1. Sam Fogg Rare Books Ltd., London.
Provenance 1. Sam Fogg, London.
Commentary Perfection of Wisdom Sutra is the central text of the Mahayana Prajñamarmita school, here in a translation from the original Sanskrit. It exist in a range of shorter and longer recensions from 25 to 100,000 lines, of which that in 8,000 lines is regarded as having been the source. The first Tibetan translation was made in around 850 and the second in 1020. The Tibetan translation has been useful to modern scholars occupied in analysing the Sanskrit text, because of its high level of understanding and accuracy. The Sutra recounts a debate a Rajagriha, on the Vulture Peak, where 1250 Buddhist monks gathered to hear the Buddha. The other main speakers are the Buddha's disciples Subhuti and Sariputra. The present MS is a luxury MS of the highest quality, probably either a princely commission, or perhaps, for the supreme leader of one of the larger monasteries.
Place of origin Tibet
Dates ca. 1400