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 365

CHAPTER I]
BOWER MANUSCRIPT
in that town came to hear of it, and at once went to the Qaxi's house to secure some
ortion of the find for their patrons. The British Agent, an Afghan merchant residing in Kuchar, named Qâdir Khân, obtained, only a couple of days after the manuscripts had been brought to the house of the Qazi, a few of them in two bundles, no doubt, by means of a gratuity given to the servant of the Qasi (Nos, viii, x). The manuscripts thus
btained he transmitted to his brother, Dildâr Khân, another merchant, acting as the British Aqsaqâl in Yarkand. The latter sold, in the following year, 1892, one of the
wo bundles to Mr, Weber, through Munshi Ahmad Din. This bundle has since been known as the Weber Manuscripts. The other bundle Dildar Khân carried to India, no coubt with the object of selling it there, but failing therein, he brought it back, in 1895, ind disposed of it to Sir George Macartney in Kashgar (Nos, vi, viii); and it has since been known as the Macartney Manuscripts. Similarly, the Russian Aqsaqâl in Kuchar, an Indijani merchant (perhaps the man Chal Muhammad who was Dr. von Le Coq's aformant ; see No. xii), secured another bundle of more or less injured manuscripts rom the Qazi's house, which he transmitted to Mr. Petrovski in Kashgar, and which ow form the Petrovski collection in St. Petersburg. As to what became of the remainder of the manuscripts in the house of the Qazi, there is no certain information. The current
pinion in Kuchar appears to be that, utterly neglected as they were in the house of the Razi, they gradually got lost or destroyed. Some of them may, in the form of detached eaves, have subsequently found their way into the hands of Europeans; others may possibly, as Mi. Berezovski seems to believe (No. x), still yield to persevering search. To he former class may possibly belong some of the detached leaves, which were given to Captain Godfrey in 1895 apparently by some Yarkand traders, and which are said to have freen "dug up near some old buried city in the vicinity of Kuchar." They belong to the ollection which now bears the name of the Godfrey Manuscripts.39
The general truth of the native tradition respecting the condition of the manuscripts At the time of their discovery, and their treatmeut afterwards in the house of the Qari. is fully confirmed by the appearance of the Weber, Macartney and Petrovski Manuscripts at the time of their reception. At the latter date, they consisted of more or less disorderly bundles of damaged manuscripts in which a number of leaves of different manuscripts were mixed up. Among the Weber and Macartney Manuscripts there actually were portions of manuscripts of which other portions are among the Petrovski Manuscripts.40 This strikingly illustrates the ignorant neglect and careless treatment to which, according to Timur Beg's story (see No. 2), the manuscripts were exposed in the house of his uncle. According to that story, in the original condition in which they were found, they appear
» See Journal, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXVI (1897), Part I, p. 14, and Plates II and III,
40 See the description of pothf, No. 2 of set I, in my Report on the British Collection of Central Asian Antiquities, Part II, page 16; also ante, footnote 33, p. VIL