This manuscript from Thailand dates from the late eighteenth century and is a fine example of how Buddhist scriptures were illustrated in book form.

The texts in this Thai manuscript are drawn from seven sections of the Abhidhamma, part of the Buddhist scriptures.The title Mahabuddhagunam (meaning 'great merit of the Buddha') is given to this collection of texts. In old Thai manuscripts, Buddhist texts are illustrated with scenes that are mainly decorative, or with Buddhist narrative scenes of the previous lives of the Buddha, termed birth tales, of which there are more than five hundred in the scriptures. The last ten birth tales were widely illustrated in temples and manuscript painting in Thailand.