Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 333 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0333	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

also in my Brāhmī documents can be definitely asserted on the basis of Dr. Hoernle's prelimi-
nary notes ¹⁹. Without awaiting the results of his detailed analysis it is impossible to say
whether the contents, too, furnish definite proof of identical origin. But in this respect we can
fortunately rely on the parallel evidence of the Chinese documents. We have seen already
that two of these contained in Dr. Hoernle's collection must have been written at Li-hsieh,
which the testimony of my own find (D. v. 6) enables us to fix at Dandān-Uiliq, and from the
same batch (M. 9) which furnished those two Li-hsieh records, came eight of Dr. Hoernle's best
preserved specimens in Brāhmī script with an Eastern Irānian language.
The minute analysis of the Brāhmī documents previously at his disposal enabled Dr. Hoernle Language
to establish several philological facts which are of very great interest. By determining a number and contents
of words, mainly numerals and terms used in the dating, he succeeded in proving the Eastern of Brāhmī
Irānian type of this 'unknown language' and its special connexion with the Galcha dialects documents.
of the Pāmir region ²⁰. He clearly ascertained the important fact that the majority of the
complete documents are fully dated, though the key to the reckoning of years has yet to be
discovered ²¹. A number of ingenious observations, such as the discovery of lists of names at
the end of documents, accompanied by what are manifestly the marks of witnesses, the frequent
occurrence of Chinese signatures or office-stamps in the same place, &c., permitted Dr. Hoernle
to arrive at the undoubtedly correct conclusion that we have in them records of official or
private transactions similar in character to the deeds of loan, requisition orders, &c., represented
by the Chinese documents already discussed. Yet in order to invest these observations with
their full historical value, it was essential that the place of origin and the period of these
records should be fixed beyond all doubt. The special importance of the Brāhmī documents
brought to light by me at Dandān-Uiliq lies in the fact that, few and fragmentary as they
are, the certainty which exists as to all circumstances of their discovery supplies just what the
student of these records needed.
The close association of Brāhmī documents with Chinese ones, not only in D. v, but also Date of
in other ruins (D. VII, VIII) to be discussed hereafter, permits us to fix the time of the former Brāhmī
with approximate certainty. We shall see that the dates of the Chinese records discovered documents.
by me all range between the years 781 and 790, and that very distinct archaeological evidence
points to the buildings containing them having been finally abandoned soon after. Insignificant
in size and material as the Brāhmī documents are, it appears improbable that they should date
back to a period appreciably earlier than that of the Chinese papers with which they were
found. Hence the conclusion seems justified that the Brāhmī documents, too, must belong to
the last quarter of the eighth century. If, in conjunction with this chronological fixing, we
consider the character of those Brāhmī documents which Dr. Hoernle has fully analysed, it becomes
evident that their language must have been that actually spoken by the inhabitants of the
ruined settlement during the period immediately preceding its abandonment. This then was
the 'barbarian language', to the use of which, by the people of Li-hsieh, the Chinese documents
D. v. 6 and A both distinctly allude ²².
I have had occasion, in a previous chapter, to point out that the fact of this language Eastern
having proved to be of Eastern Irānian origin is in full accord with what indications we other- Irānian
language of
documents.

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