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0410 Serindia : vol.2
Serindia : vol.2 / Page 410 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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914   TEXTILE REMAINS AND MSS. FROM CHIEN-FO-TUNG [Chap. XXIV

mentary portions of various canonical texts of the Mahayana, there are found among them leaves of the Udânavarga of Dharmatrata 2 and a composition of Matrceta. The fact that the writing in all these Pôthis is in the Slanting Gupta script, not found in Tun-huang manuscripts of obviously local origin, points to their having been Central-Asian imports. Indian origin is certain in the case of the large palm-leaf Pahl", Ch. 0079. A, which contains in sixty-four folia about one-third of the Prajniafitiramita in the Salasiihasrikâ version, and also in that of the single palm-leaf, Ch. 0079. b, preserved out of what must have been a large Mahayana Sutra text.3 Both manuscripts are in Upright Gupta script and are likely to have reached Tun-huang through Tibet from the Nepalese side.

Among the rolls with Sanskrit texts two, Ch. oo92 and Ch. 00330, deserve special mention. The first shows a portion of the Nilakanthadhdrani with an interlinear Sogdian version. Since its publication by MM. de la Vallée Poussin and Gauthiot, M. Sylvain Lévi has suggested strong reasons for placing the date of this bilingual manuscript between A.D. 650-750.4 The other roll contains a short version of the Prajnâftâramitâ in Sanskrit with a Chinese transliteration in alternate columns, both closely agreeing with a well-known Horiuji manuscript of the sixth century. Various Buddhist texts in corrupt Sanskrit are found written on the reverse of Chinese rolls,5 a circumstance which together with the Cursive Gupta script points to their having been copied locally. Similar in language and character, but written in Upright Gupta, are most of the contents of the gigantic roll, Ch. c. oo1,8 over 70 feet long, while the rest are in Khotanese and Cursive Gupta script.

Far more numerous are both Pôthis and rolls containing texts in the language which after having been, during earlier stages of its study, designated variously as ' Unknown Language II ', ` North-Aryan ', ' Eastern Turkestan'', ` Eastern Iranian ', may conveniently be called now Khotanese ' in accordance with the views arrived at by Dr. Hoernle, the pioneer of its study, and by Professor Sten Konow.7 In my collection of Chien-fo-tung manuscripts it is represented by some fourteen Pôthis and thirty-one rolls, some complete, some fragmentary. In the case of the rolls one side of the paper almost invariably displays a Chinese text, wholly unconnected in character with the Brahmi text on the other.8 Both the Upright and Cursive Gupta scripts are found in the Khotanese texts. The most interesting among these are, perhaps, the two Pôthis, both complete, containing the Aparamilâyuh-siiIra and the Vajracchedika respectively.8 Both being literal translations of well-known Buddhist texts available in their Sanskrit originals, they first supplied Dr. Hoernle with the means for the systematic interpretation of connected passages of Khotanese text,10 and subsequently served Professor Sten Konow for his critical edition of these Khotanese versions." Among other Khotanese Pôthis which specimens reproduced in Plates CXLVIII—CL, CLII

' See for specimens, Pl. CXLVII.

3 For specimens of both manuscripts, see Pl. CXLVI.

4 Cf. J.R.A.S., 1912, pp. 629 sqq., 1063 sqq.

9 See Ch. oo41, 0044 (Pl. CXLVII), 0047.

s Cf. Hoernle, The ' Unknown Languages' of Eastern Turkestan, ri,J.R.A.S., 1911, pp. 471 sqq. ; for specimens, see Pl. CXLVI (where a portion of the roll has by mistake been reproduced topsy-turvy).

7 Cf. MS. Remains of Buddhist Literature, ed. Hoernle, i. pp. x, 218 sqq. For earlier views as to the linguistic relation of this language, cf. also Pelliot, Un fragment du Suvarnaprabhâsasûtra, Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique, xviii (reprint), pp. 1 sq.

8 In Ch. 0045-6, 0049, 00271, 00331, where the Chinese writing on one side is wanting, the roll is fragmentary. In

Ch. c. 002 there is clear proof that an old Chinese roll had been used on the reverse as an ' exercise book ' in Brahmi. It is probable that in the majority of the cases the Chinese side is the obverse, containing the earlier writing. But see - also Pelliot, loc. cit., p. 3. The roll Ch. ii. oor, which is incomplete, has Khotanese on both sides. This is the case also in cvi. oor, where the reverse bears in addition Tibetan writing, apparently contemporaneous.

9 For specimens of the Aparamilayuh-sutra, Ch. xlvi. 0015, see PI. CL ; of the Vajracchedikâ, Ch. 00275 + xlvi. oor 2. a, in 44 foil., Pl. CXLIX ; also MS. Remains of Buddhist Literature, i. Pl. V—XVI.

2° Cf. Hoernle, The ' Unknown Languages' of Eastern Turkestan, J.R.A.S, 1910, pp. 836, 1283 sqq.

" Cf. Sten Konow, The Vajracchedikd and the Aparan=

MS. rolls
with Sans-
krit texts.

Mills in Khotanese language.