Artist: Jivarama (Sketchbook)

Sketchbooks| Dated Works

This sketchbook by Jivarama is the earliest extant Newari sketchbook, dating to 1435, and was made when Jivarama was working for Tibetan patrons. It is a proper sketchbook made by the artist to showcase his designs, *not* a collection of iconometric illustrations which is what we call 'sketchbooks' produced by Tibetan artists.

It is in the folding book format that was commonly used in Nepal for texts, sketchbooks, and other types of manuscripts. The manuscript has 39 folios. The first two show the latter four of Vaishravana's horsemen that are normally part of a set of eight, suggesting that there may once have been pages that preceded the current beginning. The end of the set of 39 folio pages turns over to the reverse side, which is decorated with 7 additional pages of decorative patterns. All the pages are shown below in order, with the folio pages unfolded, and the reverse pages last.

The colophon of this sketchbook is located in the upper portion of folio 23 the inscription provides the following information:
"In Newari Samvat Year 555 (CE 1435) on the second day of the dark half of Vaišākha Month [April-May], Jīvarāma personally wrote this, [and] after [he] heard [instructions] from Chon bhota made the whole book himself. After having come from Prati cittam [towards the west; perhaps a place name], where he heard [instructions] from Lālā Chunva [a Newar phonetic rendering of a Tibetan name ending in "chung wa ,the younger"]. Giving the book special importance, he brought it back to [his own] vihāra. After working in Nyar Dva [Tibetan place name?], he then brought it back. This was made personally by Jīvarāma."

One significant discovery based on this sketchbook is that Jivarama himself is possibly the artist of this exceptional painting of Ganapati. The strongest evidence so far is that the makara throne in the painting is *identical* to the makara design in this sketchbook, and the Virupa in the top left of the Ganapati painting is very similar to the sketch of Virupa in this sketchbook. This identification of Jivarama as the artist was originally made by John Huntington and Dina Bangdel.

Sources:
-Nevar Artist Jivarama's Sketchbook of N.S. 555 (1435), John Huntington

-The earliest dated Newar artist’s sketchbook, Ian Alsop and Elena Pakhoutova

Nick Dharmadi 8-2026