Seated Youthful Manjushri in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 2010

Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Transcendent Wisdom

Date: 9th–10th century

Culture: Nepal (Kathmandu Valley)

Medium: Copper alloy

Dimensions: H. 6 9/16 in. (16.7 cm)

Classification: Metalwork

Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. A. Richard Benedek, 1978

Accession Number: 1978.394.1

Description


Manjushri, a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom as the path to enlightenment, is closely related to the wisdom goddess Prajnaparamita. Both emerged in north Indian religious texts and imagery in the eighth century. Manjushri is here represented as a child, his hair styled in a three-part chignon and wearing a tiger-claw necklace, both signs of boyhood. Iconographic texts identify the object in his right hand as a citron and that in his left as a blue lotus.

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