National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
Citation Information
OCR Text
The remarkable state of preservation in which many of
the wooden tablets were found made it easy for me even
on the spot to recognize the main features of their use and
outward arrangement. With the exception of a few oblong
pieces, all the tablets found that day were wedge-shaped,
from seven to fifteen inches long, and showed evidence of
having originally been fastened together in pairs (Fig. 38).
I shall presently describe the ingenious method used for
this fastening. The text, which was invariably in cursive
Kharoshthi writing, running from right to left and parallel
to the longer side, occupied the inner sides of the tablets.
Other tablets bore on their outside surface a sunk socket
for a clay seal and soon proved to have served the purposes
of a kind of envelope. By the side of the socket there usually
appeared brief entries forming a single line. These at once
suggested the address or name of the sender. Where double
tablets had remained together, and thus protected each
other, the black ink of the writing on the inner surfaces
looked as fresh as if penned yesterday.
Thus it was easy to recognize that the tablets, though
written by many different hands, showed throughout the
characteristic peculiarities of that type of Kharoshthi writ-
ing which in India is invariably exhibited by the stone
inscriptions of the Kushana or Indo-Scythian dynasty. Its
kings ruled over the Panjab and the regions to the west of
the Indus during the first three centuries of our era. Thus
even before any careful examination became possible I felt
assured as to the high antiquity and exceptional value of
the materials I was busy gathering.
And yet during that day's animating labours there re-
mained a thought that did not allow my archaeological
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13
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23
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33
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45
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57
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68
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79
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89
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100
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111
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122
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134
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145
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149
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153
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157
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168
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178
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189
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200
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212
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225
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237
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248
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259
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273
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284
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295
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306
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317
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327
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337
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352
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364
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377
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391
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406
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418
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431
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442
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453
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466
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477
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491
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502
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513
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525
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537
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550
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561
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571
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578
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