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Lot Essay
Gunakarandavyuha is an indigenous Newari composition of the 15th century, and also a verse expansion of the far older Indian Karandavyuha which dates around the fourth or fifth century. Both texts describe the infinite compassion of Avalokitesvara, who is closely implicated in the self-presentation of medieval Indian and Nepalese Buddhist kings, as is natural given his earlier and alternative name, Lokesvara ('Lord of the World'). Both texts are called an array of boxes precisely because their literary form is of stories enclosed ('boxed') in an often bewildering complex of concentric framing narratives.
The Gunakarandavyuha, as a 15th century reworking of the older narrative, was commissioned for a new infusion of Sanskrit Buddhism to the Kathmandu valley. It is among the very last of the Buddhist sutras to be composed in Sanskrit.
The colophon is written in a hybrid of incorrect Sanskrit and Newari. It begins with the so-called Buddhist creed (ye dharma...) and then states that the copying was completed on Thursday, the thirteenth day of the dark half (after the full-moon) of the month of Asvin (September-October) in the Hasta lunar mansion of 1805 (NS 927). The scribe was the vajracarya (hereditary Tantric priest) Sri Guna On Taruna, of the Hemavarnamahavihara, also meaning Golden temple, in Patan, the wealthiest monastery and largest in terms of membership.
The Gunakarandavyuha, as a 15th century reworking of the older narrative, was commissioned for a new infusion of Sanskrit Buddhism to the Kathmandu valley. It is among the very last of the Buddhist sutras to be composed in Sanskrit.
The colophon is written in a hybrid of incorrect Sanskrit and Newari. It begins with the so-called Buddhist creed (ye dharma...) and then states that the copying was completed on Thursday, the thirteenth day of the dark half (after the full-moon) of the month of Asvin (September-October) in the Hasta lunar mansion of 1805 (NS 927). The scribe was the vajracarya (hereditary Tantric priest) Sri Guna On Taruna, of the Hemavarnamahavihara, also meaning Golden temple, in Patan, the wealthiest monastery and largest in terms of membership.