IM-12783: Complete 19th century Burmese Kammavaca manuscript. It is composed of two outer covers, and sixteen lacquered tablets written in Pali. The covers and individual lacquered leaves each measure 5 x 22.1 inches – 127 x 560 mm. From Burma (Myanmar), circa 1850-85.
The Kammavaca is a sacred manuscript from the Indian subcontinent of disciplinary formulae for the regulation of Buddhist monastic life - among the most sacred of Burmese texts. It is written in the Pali language, typically on gold lacquered palm leaves. This set is unusually written on a combination of silver and gilt lacquer. Around the latter half of the 17th century a square type of writing executed in thick resinous black lacquer (called “tamarind seed”) became the preferred script for Kammavaca - which reached their apogee during the Konbuang Dynasty (1752-1885).
Ref: Albertine Gaur: A History of Writing, p. 114, and British Library: “Kammavaca is a Pali term describing an assemblage of passages from the Tipitaka – the Theravada Buddhist canon – that relate to ordination, the bestowing of robes, and other rituals of monastic life. A Kammavaca is a highly ornamental type of manuscript usually commissioned by lay members of society as a work of merit, to be presented to monasteries when a son enters the Buddhist Order as a novice or becomes ordained as a monk.”
Nice antiquarian condition as shown in the photographs. There are chips along some corners and edges, and some wear to the decoration from devotional use. The hole in each leaf is original and facilitates a string which would hold the leaves in order. This is an original artifact, not a reproduction, and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
