Indian Antiquary Vol 42

SR No.: 032534
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 360

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[CHAPTER I
But the extracts, above given, furnish us with some further corroborative evidence. Lieutenant Bower tells us that his stôpa (ie, the stôpa close to the Ming-oi of Qum Turâ) was “about 50 feet high" (No. jii). On the other hand, the stûpa of Qutluq Urda, which is described by M. Pelliot as a “grand stûpa ” (No. x), is stated by the Chinese Amban, who visited it at the end of the year 1894, to have been "about 10 chang (pr about 100 feet) in height, and about the same dimension in circumference (No, ix). This "grand stūpa," therefore, in those days, was about twice the size of the stûpa of Quin Tura. Again the stûpa of Qum Tura, according to both Lieutenant Bower and Dr. von Le Coq, stands right upon the eastern or left) bank of the river Shahyâr (Nos. iii, xiii ), or Muzart as it is also called (No. xi. ), while the stûpa of Qutlug Urda is described by Dildar Khân, in his Urdû account, as standing" at the foot of a mountain” (No. vii ), the reference apparently being to the "low barren hills," alluded to by Lieutenant Bower in the account of bis march to Qum Turâ ( No. ii). The topographical position of the two stûpas, therefore, is quite different. There is a further difference in the dates of the opening of the two stūpas. Lieutenant Bower obtained his manuscript early in 1890. Therefore the stûpa, in which it was found, was opened, at least, as early as that year. In fact, as will be shown presently, it appears to have been opened only a few days previously. On the other hand, the Qutlug Urdâ stûpa must have been opened in 1891, that is, about one year later than the Qum Turâ stapa. For when Mr. Weber obtained his manuscripts in June 1892, he was told that they had been found "the year before" (Nos, iv and v), that is to say, in 1891. There was, therefore, an interval of about one year between the openings of the two stậpas. Between the year 1891 and the date of M. Pelliot's visit in 1907, there is an interval of 16 years. The native tradition, at the time of his visit to Kuchar, made the interval to be “about a score of years ” (No. x). The same statement, “ some 20 years ago " was made about the same time to Dr. von Le Coq (No. xiii). As to this discrepancy, the contemporary statement, made to Mr. Weber, is obviously more trustworthy than the vague statement, in round numbers, of a much later oral tradition, which had no longer an exact recollection of the date, and which, in any case, would be inconsistent with either date, 1890 or 1891. M. Pelliot's remark that the find in the stûpa was made "some time before the arrival of Captain Bower" (No. xi) would seem to be merely a deduction from the statement " about a score of years ” in the native tradition, seeing that the latter would work out about the year 1887, or about four years earlier than Lieutenant Bower's visit. The tradition itself knows nothing about Lieutenant Bower. Lastly, there is a difference between the numbers of manuscripts which are reported to have been found in the two stûpas respectively. The Bower Manuscript is the solitary manuscript which is said to have been found in the stôpa at Qum Turâ (No. iii). On the other hand, with regard to the stúpa of Qutluq Urdâ the uniform native tradition is that a large number of manuscripts were dug out from it (Nos, viii, xii), the number being sometimes given as 25, and at other times (no doubt, exaggeratedly) even as 250 (No, x),
The facts above set out make it quite certain that the Bower Manuscript was not found in the stâpa of Qutloq Urda, about one mile from Kuchar, but in a stûpa close to the Ming-oi of Qum Turâ about 13 (or 16) miles from that town,' But further, it seems practically certain that it was dug out from the stapa, on the ridge above the caves, at the spot marked C on the Topographical Plan. For this stôpa alone can be said to be “ close