English: The Gaudapada Karika, also called the Mandukya Karika, has been an influential text for the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, particularly its first three chapters have been oft cited in the Advaita tradition such as by Adi Shankara. Parts of the first chapter that include the Mandukya Upanishad have been considered a valid scriptural source by the Dvaita and Vishistadvaita schools of Vedanta. Chapter 4 has a Buddhist flavor, a chapter that has been generally disregarded in the Hindu traditions.

The text is generally dated to about the 6th-century CE.

These manuscripts are preserved at the Lalchand Research Library, Ancient Indian Manuscript Collection, DAV College Digital Library Initiative, Chandigarh India, in association with SP Lohia and Indorama Charitable Trust. The texts are over 2000 years old, the re-copying into this particular manuscript is dated to a mid-19th-century reproduction. Some sheets of the manuscript show signs of stains, decay and damage on the sides and its edges.

Language: Sanskrit

Script: Devanagari

Script style: pre-14th century (Northern / Western)

The photo above is of a 2D artwork of a text that is over 1,200 years old, from a manuscript that was produced decades before 1923. Therefore Wikimedia Commons PD-Art licensing guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer is herewith donated to wikimedia commons under CC 4.0 license.