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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0362 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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settle definitely the period to which these records in cursive
Brahmi belong.
Dr. Hoernle, judging from palæographic evidence, had suggested
the eighth century of our era as their probable date. The correct-
ness of this approximate dating is now fully proved by the fact that
I found some of these documents mixed up in the same place and
conditions with the Chinese records to be mentioned below which
bear definite dates ranging from 781 to 787 A.D. If we are right
in supposing for these documents in cursive Brahmi such practical
contents as above indicated, it follows with great probability that
their language was that actually spoken by the inhabitants of the
ruined settlement immediately before it was abandoned. It still
remains to be ascertained whether this language is identical
with the unknown tongue already mentioned above which appears
in some fragmentary manuscript books or Pothis from Dandan-
Uiliq written with Brahmi characters. Judging from certain
Sanskrit terms found interspersed in the latter texts, it seems
probable that they treat, like the Sanskrit Pothis with which
they were found, of Buddhist religious matters. They may possibly
prove to be translations of Sanskrit treatises from the Buddhist
Canon into a Central-Asian language that had obtained literary
use in the Buddhist Church of these regions.
The room which had yielded those paper documents in cursive
Brahmi held nowhere more than 3 feet of sand. Yet, even
this scanty layer had sufficed to protect a variety of interest-
ing remains, found mainly at the foot of the walls adjoining the
south-west corner. Two small oblong tablets of thin wood,
rounded off on the right end and provided with a string-hole,
proved to contain several lines of the same cursive Brahmi
script already discussed. Another and somewhat larger tablet,
about 14 inches long and 3 inches broad, at once attracted
my interest by showing in its shape
and handle the closest resemblance
to the 'Takhta,' that traditional
wooden board which in all native
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582
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