Serindia : vol.3 / 212 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0212	Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3

Museum.¹¹ They proved to contain a considerable portion of the Central-Asian version of the
*Saddharmapuṇḍarīka*, and have since been published by Professor de la Vallée Poussin.¹² He
recognizes a close resemblance in palaeographic features between this manuscript and the leaves of
the *Vajracchedikā* text which was recovered from a monastic dwelling of Dandān-oilik and which
Dr. Hoernle considers as of the seventh or eighth century.¹³

Date and
position
of shrine
F. XII. This dating, conjectural as it must be in view of the many uncertainties still besetting the history
of Brāhmī writing in Central Asia, would have an important bearing on the chronology of the site—
if we were justified in *a priori* assuming that the shrine F. XII dated from the same period as the
other remains of Farhād-Bēg-yailaki. But grave doubts against this assumption are raised by the
position of the shrine, which, in spite of its close vicinity, essentially differs from that of the other
ruins. While these are found invariably on wind-eroded terraces or else on flat ground which has
the same level as such terraces situated close by, the shrine F. XII is built on a tamarisk-cone the top
of which at the time of construction must have risen at least 20 feet, if not more, above the general
ground-level of the site. About the peculiar nature of the position thus chosen there can be no pos-
sible doubt,¹⁴ and it alone suffices to set this ruin F. XII quite apart from the rest. I know no
parallel for it except that of modern Mazārs with adjoining Muhammadan burial-places in the Khotan
region, which are frequently found placed on high tamarisk-cones or other conspicuous eminences on
the edge of the desert.

Analogy of
position in
Mazārs. It cannot be mere chance that quite a number of these places of modern local worship, often
marked only by a collection of high poles bedecked with votive rags, Yak tails, etc., are to be found
close to old sites. Thus, in the very vicinity of the site with which we are concerned here, we have
the Ulūgh-mazār and the Mazār of Lachin-atā connected with the remains of ancient Pi-mo.¹⁵ In
the midst of the 'Tatis' of Farhād-Bēg-yailaki itself there rises such a modest Mazār (see Plate 56
between IV and V) said to have been visited from 'Old Domoko', while further away it will suffice
to mention the much-frequented Mazārs of Imām Ja'far Ṣādiq and Imām 'Āsim in positions exactly
corresponding with reference to the Niya Site and the Ak-sipil remains respectively.¹⁶ The analogy
thus presented and what we know in the Khotan region about all the essential features of local
worship reaching back far into Buddhist times are bound to raise the surmise that we may have in
F. XII, not a ruin contemporary with the other remains of Farhād-Bēg-yailaki, but a shrine raised in
this 'Mazār' fashion near the old site after it had been abandoned to the desert, and thus, perhaps,
centuries later.

Chrono-
logical
evidence of
coin finds. In view of this possibility it will be safest, when examining the question as to the approximate
date of the site, to begin by considering only those chronological indications which the finds made at
the site in general and apart from F. XII furnish. A brief review will show, I believe, that these
indications are in close accord among themselves, and that they all point to a date of abandonment
distinctly earlier than the period of T'ang dominion in the Tārim Basin. In the first place impor-
tance may be claimed for the evidence of the coins. Apart from the *Wu-chu* coin unearthed on the
floor of the temple cella F. III, eight other Chinese coins were found at the site, all on the surface of
wind-eroded ground, four of them near the ruined house I, three near the monastic dwelling II, and

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