Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 389 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0389	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

finish, but were none the less puzzling at the time of their discovery. One series consisted
of tablets of rectangular shape varying in length from 6 to 16 inches, which at the narrower
sides of their single inscribed surface invariably showed a raised rim about ⅓ to 1 inch broad,
exactly resembling a margin, as seen in the reproduction of N. iv. 139 (Plate XCVI)¹². The
writing extending between these rims in neatly written lines, always parallel to the longer side,
often showed at the commencement a Kharoṣṭhī numerical figure preceded by a word which
I very soon made out to be the Sanskrit or Prākrit samvatsare 'in the year'. Immediately
after came the words mahanuava maharaya 'His Excellency the Mahārāja', as found already
in the initial formula of the wedge-shaped tablets, but followed here by what I concluded to
be the name of the ruling king, always showing the genitive ending sa. Next there appeared
with equal regularity numerical figures preceded by the words mase and divase, 'in the . . . month'
and 'on the day'. There could be no doubt that these particular tablets contained documents
fully dated. But there was nothing in this to explain the peculiar form of the tablets or their
special use.

Busily occupied as I was in directing the excavation, and in removing and numbering each of Rectangular
the rapidly succeeding finds, I failed to realize at the time the close connexion between the covering-
tablets just described and another class, of which N. iv. furnished even more numerous specimens. tablets.
They consisted of neatly finished rectangular pieces of wood, varying in length from 3¾ to 8¾ in.
and in width from 2⅛ to 4½ in., with the relatively great thickness of about ⅓ to ¾ in. The flat
reverse rarely contained any writing, while the obverse in its raised centre invariably showed
a square or oblong seal-socket provided with string-grooves, and along its side edges one to
three transversely written lines of Kharoṣṭhī¹⁴. It was only after the remarkable rubbish-heap
of N. xv., described below, had yielded up its treasures that an explanation, as definite as it
was simple, revealed itself of these curious seal-bearing tablets and of the rims of the rectangular
documents to which they had once been fitted as envelopes¹⁵.

The remains of two small rooms adjoining N. iv. on the south, to which I turned after Character of
the latter had been completely cleared, proved to be eroded almost to the floor and furnished dwelling
no finds. Their condition forcibly demonstrated what would have become of N. iv. if the N. 1.
plaster platforms had not offered some resistance to erosion, and of its relics if my exploration
had not been effected in time. The timber-débris covering the eroded slopes north and eastwards
plainly indicated that all the extant ruins I had cleared were but a portion of a large dwelling-
house; but apart from the writings found in it there was nothing to throw light on its last
occupants. So much was certain, that all these multifarious records on wood could only be
the remnants of a collection that had gradually accumulated and been left behind by chance
when the place was abandoned. The inference I had from the first been inclined to draw,
from the abundance of the documents and peculiarities already noticed in their appearance, as
to the ruin having served as the residence of some local official, could in the absence of
documentary evidence be little more than a guess. But fortunately the difficult task of decipher-

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