Folio 20, from a Gandavyuha-sutra (Scripture of the Supreme Array): Sudhana and a Parrot (recto); Text (verso)

1000–1100s

Folio 20, from a Gandavyuha-sutra (Scripture of the Supreme Array): Sudhana and a Parrot (recto); Text (verso), 1000–1100s. Nepal. Gum tempera and ink on palm leaf; average: 4.2 x 52.4 cm (1 5/8 x 20 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1955.49.1 A young male figure, probably the pilgrim Sudhana, sits on a cushion with a bolster and interacts with a parrot, perched on the trunk of a tree. Sudhana's gesture indicates that the bird should not be afraid. Most pages from this dispersed 355-folio manuscript have a single painting only on the recto side. The pages would have been bound into the book by strings running through the two holes in the center of the pages.