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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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OCR Text
'sand ocean', should have preserved for us in an Indian lan-
guage records of everyday life far older than any written
documents that have as yet come to light in India proper.
From the first there was ample antiquarian evidence of
the palaeographic sort pointing to this conclusion; for, as
already stated, the Kharoshthi writing of the documents
showed close agreement with the Kharoshthi inscriptions of
the Kushana kings whose rule over north-western India
falls mainly within the second and third centuries of our
era. Their testimony was fully supported by the fortunate
discovery in another ruin of a unique tablet showing by the
side of Kharoshthi some lines written in Indian Brahmi
characters of the Kushana or Indo-Scythian period. The
evidence of the coins was equally eloquent, since the numer-
ous Chinese copper pieces found during my stay at the site
all belonged to issues of the Later Han dynasty which came
to a close in A.D. 220.
But the incontrovertible chronological evidence I had
longed for came from one of the small pieces of wood in-
scribed with single lines of Chinese characters of which the
ancient refuse-heap had yielded up over two score (Fig. 47).
As was to be expected in the case of documents penned
by precise official hands, they yielded to M. Chavannes'
expert examination a series of very useful data. Most of
them contain brief references to orders issued by specified
Chinese authorities or relate to the movements of certain
individuals who were to be arrested or allowed to pass.
References to ancient localities both in the Tarim basin and
in China offer points of distinct historical interest.
But what gratified me most was the discovery, first made
in London by a lamented Sinologue friend, Dr. Bushell,
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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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