八字文殊曼荼羅図|Mandala of the Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) of the Eight Syllables

Unknown

13th century · Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on silk · Asian Art

This intricate painting served a central role in an Esoteric Buddhist ritual intended to prevent natural disasters and illness. The primary deity, the bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri in Sanskrit), appears in the middle of the central white orb. Immediately surrounding him are eight Sanskrit letters written in gold, representing the eight sounds of the incantation at the heart of this ritual as well as Monju’s eight youthful messengers. Four protective, wrathful deities known as Wisdom Kings appear just outside this most sacred sector of the mandala. The twenty-four subsidiary deities who occupy the outermost band consist of eight bodhisattvas, eight celestials (corresponding to the ordinal and cardinal directions of the compass), and their eight concubines, for a total of thirty-seven deities across three sectors of the painting.

Artist

Unknown

Date

13th century

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on silk

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975