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 391

CHAPTER IV.
THE SCRIPT, THE SCRIBES, AND THEIR USAGES IN THE
BOWER MANUSCRIPT-Contd. It remains to notice a few miscellaneous points connected with the script and the usages of the writers of the several Parts of the Bower Manuscript,
(i) THE NUMERAL SIGNS ; see Table IV. These are the old signs of the original Indian system of notation, anterior to the discovery of the value of place" and the invention of the cypher. That systeia made use of twenty signs, viz., nine for the units, nine for the tens, one for hundred, and one for thousand, Thirteen from among these twenty signs occur in the Bower Manuscript; vis., the nine unit figures, and the figures for 10, 20, 30 and 50. The figure for 50 is doubtful: it might be the figure for 70 (see Chapter II, p. xx). Most of the thirteen figures occur in the numbering of the leaves of the several Parts, a few also in the text of Parts II, IV, and V. The series of three numbers which occur in the divination treatises of Parts IV and V have to be understood, not as possessing any "value of place," but simply as being three successive unit figures. For example, the series 444, in Part IV, p. 192, which repeats three times the unit figure for 4, is to be read, not as four hundred, forty, four, but simply as four, four, four. It indicates that the die is thrown three times, (see p. X CI) so that each time its face shows the number four,
(ii) MISCELLANEOUS MARKS; see Table V. A variety of marks occur to indicate various purposes, such as interpunction, correction, or a lacuna.
(1) INTERPUNCTION (see Traverses 1 and 2 of Table V for Parts I-III. Traverses 1-3 for part IV, and Traversez 1-1 for Par's V-VII). The writers of the Bower Manuscript observe no consistent system of interpunction. As to Parts I-III, which are written, practically entirely, in verse, the writer, as a rule, makes no use of any sign to indicate the ends of half or whole verses. Occasionally he marks the end by a rather wider interval, as, e.g., the end of verses 121 (Part II, p. 32. fol. 56, 1. 5), 223 (ib., p. 38, fol. 86, 1. 4). 353 (ib. p. 44, fol. 116, 1. 7), etc. This mars, however, is very unsafe, as the writer often disperses his writing, mostly by reason of the defects of the birch-bark (as in Part II fol. 126, 1. 2; Part III, fol. 2b, 1. 3), or on account of the spread of a conjunct consonant (as in Part III, fol. 2b, 1. 3); bu, sonetimes apparenily from mere caprice (as in shalini on 1. 6 of Part II, fol. 12b). If he does use a sign, it is either the well-known double stroke, or a comma laid lengthwise, or a ringlet, simple or complex,
(a) The Double stroke. -The mo lern Indian usage is to mark the end of the half-verse by a single vertical stroke, and the end of the full ver ze by a couple of vertical strokes. As regards the single stroke, in Parts I-III, the end of the half verse is never marked, unless it coincides with the end of a formula, or of a seatioa; and in that case, it is marked-if it is marked at all-with any of the marks of a full-verse. The single stroke, accordingly, is never found. The double stroke always, except as above noted, marks the end of a full verse. In Part I, it occurs no infrequently, in fact, in the forty-three verses of the initial treatise on garlic, it is used regularly, the only exceptions being verses 29 and 35. In the subsequent portion it occurs very rarely: only in verses 51, 59, 69, 67, 70, 73, 79-88, 97, 98. 100, 116, 128. In Parts II and III, also, it occurs very rarely. Thus, in Part II, in verses