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Painted Banner (paubha) of Goddess Ushnishavijaya Within a Funerary Mound (chaitya) and Surrounded by Chaityas

A work made of opaque watercolor with gold on cotton.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of opaque watercolor with gold on cotton.

Date:

1513

Artist:

Nepal
Kathmandu Valley

About this artwork

At the center of this cloth painting (paubha) from Nepal the goddess Ushnishavijaya is enshrined within a large Buddhist funeral mound or shrine (chaitya), flanked by a red and green bodhisattva. As the personification of the Buddha’s cranial bump (ushnisha), Ushnishavijaya is associated with wisdom and is worshipped for long life and freedom from rebirth. At the periphery, she is surrounded by the guardians of the four directions. The blank red spaces are areas where the painting was damaged and then restored. An upper section is also missing. The many small chaityas represent the multiplication of merit accumulated in this painting, which symbolically allow for the donation of 100,000 chaityas in a ceremony known as lakshachaitya (100,000 chaityas). This ceremony is depicted in the bottom register, where priests officiate at the lower left and donors officiate at the lower right.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of Asia

Title

Painted Banner (paubha) of Goddess Ushnishavijaya Within a Funerary Mound (chaitya) and Surrounded by Chaityas

Place

Nepal (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1508–1518

Medium

Opaque watercolor with gold on cotton

Dimensions

58.2 × 57.2 cm (23 3/16 × 22 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf

Reference Number

2014.1040

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/131816/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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