A thangka depicting a mandala of Vasudhara, Nepal, dated 1862

Peaceful Wind, Santa Fe, 12th October 1995.

Maryland Private Collection.

Sotheby's New York, 18th September 2023, lot 192.

There is an inscription at the base. The first line and several characters of the second are in Sanskrit, and are verses in praise of the goddess Vasudhara. Then the inscription continues in Newari: "On Wednesday, the seventh of the dark half of Pousa, during the citra naksatra and the dhriti yoga, during the Jathakarna muhurtra, when the sun was in Cancer [?] and the moon in Virgo, in the year NS 982 [AD 1862], on this day [this] paubha of the mandala of Vasudhara was made and placed. The donor is Harsha narasimha Sikhirikara of Rajakirtti Mahavihara in the great city of Kantipuri in the Nepala mandala, his son Heravira Simha, these two, while sojourning on the Northern road, beyond the great Brahmaputra River, while, as the avatars of Sihara Sarthabahu, doing business in the magical seat of Lhasa, at that time righteous thoughts arose in their mind [the Dharma thought arose], and in the name of their mother Dhijara Chimi, on this auspicious day they made and had consecrated this Vasudhara mandala. May it be good." [translation by Ian Alsop]