3-057-309 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Pandit Amrtananda and Captain Knox with the Bodhisattva Manjushri (representing transcendent wisdom) and auspicious symbols, 1803. Wooden back cover of the Lalitavistara, an anonymous compilation which tells the story of the early life of the Buddha. The text was inscribed in Patan, Nepal, by the Buddhist Pandit Amrtananda for Captain W.D. Knox, the patron of the manuscript, who is described as someone whose "liberality and other virtues surpassed the Hindu divinities and proved him to be an Avatara of Buddha". Knox, an officer in the army of the East India Company, is portrayed in uniform as an avatar of Buddha. He was the first British resident in Nepal, and is depicted holding a prayer wheel. The title Lalitavistara has been translated as "the play in full".