Gilded and red and black lacquered manuscript in Pali of the Burmese Kammavācā text, containing sections from the Vinaya Pitaka, the section of the Buddhist canon that deals with the monastic disciplinary code. Likely produced in the 19th century. Manuscript codex. The leaves are of lacquered textile. Layout: Written in 6 long lines. Script: Written in black lacquered "tamarind seed script." Decoration: The manuscript is gilded and lacquered. The covers and the outer faces of the introductory leaves are decorated with devas and other celestial beings within panels amid complex foliate scrolling borders. Each leaf is decorated on both sides with six lines of square Burmese script in black magyi zi lacquer made from tamarind seed, between hatched (yazamat) borders. Small birds are... Binding: Decorated wooden cover boards; gold leaf shwe zawa work on the outer face. Each page is numbered sequentially from kha togi. All pages are present; none have been lost. Each page has been inscribed with an extract from one of the nine khandakas, a section of the Pali Vinaya Pitaka which sets out the rules of conduct for Burmese Buddhist monks and novices. There is some minor chipping... Origin: Likely produced in the 19th century. The pages are read horizontally and are turned away from the reader as it is finished and the next one is commenced. A small hole in the covers and in each page allowed for a bamboo pin to be driven through the set to hold it together when not in use. Kammavaca manuscripts often were presented to novice monks on their joining a monastery, or to mark the ordination of a monk. They were also commissioned and presented to monasteries to mark life cycle events such as an important birthday, graduation, marriage...
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