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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

INTRODUCTION   xvii

meant to illustrate the materials which he proposed to treat in a volume of the Académie des Inscriptions' Mémoires concernant l'Asie orientale, intended to serve as a memorial of his departed pupil and friend, M. Petrucci. Soon after those letters were written, M. Chavannes himself suffered a premonitory attack of the fell disease which six months later was to end his life prematurely, an irreparable loss to research. My recollection of that bright October afternoon of 1917, when on my way out to India I bade him farewell in his garden home of Fontenay-aux-Roses, after having obtained his acceptance of the dedication of Serindia, will never fade, nor my grateful attachment to his noble memory.

I have suffered the loss of another most valued collaborator in the person of the late Dr. A. F. Help of

RUDOLF HOERNLE, C.I.E., a true pioneer of Central-Asian studies on the philological side. Just as he Dr. Rvn.

HOERNLâ.

had done all he could to help forward the plan of my first expedition and then the elaboration of its results, he threw himself with the same persevering• energy into the manifold labours demanded by the classification, preliminary analysis, and partial publication of the far more abundant ` finds' in Brâhmi script brought back from my second journey. His Inventory List of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Khotanese, and Kuchean contained in Appendix F bears eloquent proof to the untiring zeal with which, in spite of the burden of advanced age, he carried through this very troublesome task. In a series of articles he discussed the first results yielded by his study of the important series of Khotanese texts recovered from the Chtien-fo-tung hoard, and subsequently arranged for the publication of a number among them in his MS. Remains of Buddhist Literature, partly with the very competent help of Professor STEN Koxow.21 A kindly Fate had permitted the veteran scholar to carry on his cherished labours almost to the end of his long and fruitful life, which came on Armistice Day in November, 1918. The unfailing help I received from him for over twenty years past and his constant friendly interest will remain enshrined in my grateful memory.

It has been a source of much satisfaction to me that the same highly qualified scholars, Collabora-Professor E. J. RAPSON, M. EMILE SENART, Membre de l'Institut, and the Abbé BOYER, who had Collabora-

tion

undertaken the decipherment and publication of the ancient Kharosthi documents on wood and records.

leather discovered on my first journey,22 willingly charged themselves with the same difficult task as regards the corresponding finds brought back from my second expedition. Professor Rapson has directly assisted me in preparing the present work by a series of valuable notes on certain Kharosthi tablets from the Niya and Lou-lan sites,23 while the Abbé Boyer has laid me under a further great obligation by the successful decipherment of important inscriptions in Kharosthi and early Brâhmi from Miran and the Tun-huang Limes.24 In regard to my Sanskrit manuscript materials I have derived very helpful guidance from Dr. L. D. BARNETT and Professor L. DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN.

The considerable collection of Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts brought away from the ` Thousand Buddhas ' and now deposited at the India Office Library has been completely catalogued by Professor L. DE LA VALLIlE POUSSIN, after a start had been made by Miss C. M. Ridding under the guidance of Dr. F. W. THOMAS, the learned librarian of the India Office. To the latter's kindness I am indebted for communication of the extracts contained in Appendix I. Of direct and important advantage for the record of my archaeological work has been the preparation of a complete inventory of the great mass of Tibetan documents, mainly of a quasi-official character, brought to light from

Examination of Tibetan MS. finds.

21 Cf. J.R.A.S., 191o, pp. 834-8, 1283-1300 ; 1911, pp. 201 sqq., 447-77 ; MS. Remains of Buddhist Literature, i. pp. xxi sqq., 58 sqq., 75 sqq., 175, 214-356. Several texts prepared by Dr. Hoernle himself still await publication in a second volume of this work.

1974

22 Now published in Kharosthi Inscriptions discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan, Clarendon Press, Oxford, Fasciculus I, 4to, 1920.

2S See below, pp. 231 sqq., 414 sqq.

24 Cf. below, pp. 529 sqq., 701 sqq.