国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

of the Ladakh empire. As his own father was to some extent mixed up with
these painful affairs, it is to him a kind of family history as well. The very fact
that he tells it at all, and without any embellishing touches, goes far to prove
his veracity in this case; and, as the whole narrative does not contain one word
derogatory to the conquerors, but a long tale of ignominy and shame to the losing,
i.e. his own side, I think the character of the writer is fully established thereby.'
This MS., the second part of C MS., 'consists of about six folio leaves. Its language
is the modern Ladakh book-language, and this fact alone should render it particularly
interesting to students of the Tibetan language.' As already stated, we have at
present three different versions of the 'History of the Dogra Wars', which were
probably all composed by Munshi Dpal-rgyas. These three different versions will
in the following be distinguished by the letters a, b, and c. Ca MS., Munshi
Dpal-rgyas' first attempt, is the version published in J.A.S.B., 1902, pp. 21 ff.
A fragment only of a translation of Cb MS. by Dr. K. Marx is found in
J.A.S.B., 1894, pp. 106–7. Cc MS., Munshi Dpal-rgyas' final edition, forms
the basis of the present Tibetan text of the history of the Dogra war.
Wherever a passage of the text is indicated as from C MS., without the
addition of a, b, or c, it means that it was taken from a chapter of Munshi
Dpal-rgyas' chronicle which either precedes or follows the history of the
Dogra wars.

5. L MS. From a letter of Dr. L. D. Barnett of the British Museum I learnt
that the British Museum was in possession of a copy of the Rgyal-rabs of Ladakh.
It is No. 6683 of the MS. collection. As the Museum authorities are forbidden by
Act of Parliament to let any MSS. go out of the Museum, I was advised to have
this MS. photographed. L MS. is a little book, consisting of seventy-two leaves of
black indigo-tinted paper, furnished with dbu-can writing in gold. The size of the
book is 23¾ × 8½ cm. There are five lines on every page. This MS. begins with
an introductory hymn, after which follow, as I suppose, a cosmology and a genealogy
of Buddha's family. As these chapters are not of any historical interest, I asked
Dr. L. D. Barnett not to have them photographed, and to let the photographer
begin his work with the history of Gña-khri-btsan-po, on leaf No. 34. The text
from leaf No. 34 to No. 70 closely agrees with Schlagintweit's copy of the
Rgyal-rabs. On leaf No. 70, with the history of Señ-ge-rnam-rgyal, the text
proper comes to an end. But it is remarkable that the history of this king, as
preserved in L MS., contains a few passages which are not found in any other
MSS. at my disposal. These passages are, however, in agreement with Cunningham's
account of the same reign (see his Ladakh). The remaining two leaves contain
only a list of the kings following Señ-ge-rnam-rgyal. The last king mentioned is
Hjigs-med-chos-kyi-señ-ge, the father of the present ex-King Bsod-nams-rnam-rgyal.
Thus, L MS. is a specimen of those chronicles which were written at the end of
King Señ-ge-rnam-rgyal's reign. They were probably called 'Biographies of
Señ-ge-rnam-rgyal'.