Artwork Details
10-7/8 x 282 in. (image) 10-7/8 x 287 in. (mount)
DynastyMartha Delzell Memorial and James E. Roberts Funds
CopyrightAsian Art (Chinese and other Asian)
Color PalettePurchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1981
大般涅槃経 第二十二巻
The date of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra is debated and ranges from the 3rd to 2nd century BC. Originally, Buddhist sutras were the sermons of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni (or Siddhartha Gautama; about 560–483 BC), as recited from memory by his disciple Ananda at the First Buddhist Council, immediately after the Buddha’s death. Sutras composed after that time were held by believers to be later revelations of the Buddha’s teachings that were withheld during his lifetime because they were too difficult to comprehend by his contemporaries.
This sutra is precisely written in standard script for the utmost clarity. Copying sutras was and still is a devotional practice that preserves and spreads Buddhist teaching. To copy or to have a sutra copied also gained merit in terms of salvation.
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