Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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THE ALPHABET
S. Konow, Saka Studies, Oslo, 1932; Ein neuer Saka-Dialect, "SITZUNGSB. DER PREUSS. AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFT," Berlin, 1935; Khotansakische Grammatik, etc., Leipsic, 1941.
M. Leumann, Sakische Handschriftproben, Zurich, 1934.
H. W. Bailey, Iranian Studies 1, Htatanica, Indo-Turcica, "BULL OF THE SCHOOL. OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES," 1935. 1937 and 1938; Khotanese Texts, I. Cambridge, 1945.
K. Grønbech, Monumenta Linguarum Asiae Maioris, II. Codices Khotanenses, etc. Introduction by H. W. Bailey, Copenhagen, 1938.
Chinese in Cursive Gupta Character Extremely interesting is the adaptation of Central Asian cursive Gupta to Chinese. See F. W. Thomas, A Buddhist Chinese Text in Brahmi Script, "ZEITSCHRIFT DER DEUTSCHEN MORGENLÆNDISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT," 91 (1937), pp. 1-48; the manuscript, described in Serindia, p. 1,450, as bearing "93 lines Cursive Gupta, in Khotanese," appears as containing a Chinese and not a Khotanese text. The script "is of a cursive type, predominant in Saka-Khotani documents" (F. W. Thomas), and belongs to the cighth-ninth century A.D.
Western Branch of Eastern Gupta The western branch of the eastern Gupta variety appears in two forms, a cursive round-hand, and the angular, monumental type of the imperial Gupta inscriptions. The literary script of the Bower MSS. is connected with the former variety.
The famous Bower MSS. were acquired by Lieutenant Bower in 1889 in the course of his journey through Kucha (Eastern Turkestan). They are written in Sanskrit on birch-bark in a Gupta character attributed to the fifth century A.D. They consist of a miscellaneous collection of medical treatises, proverbial sayings and the like. They were edited by Dr. Hærnle, Other manuscripts of similar type, from the Central Asian collections called after Godfrey, Macartney and Weber, were edited by Harnle in the closing years of the last century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. F. R. Harle, The Bower Manuscripts, "ARCHÆOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA," Calcutta, 1893-1912.
Tibetan Scripts and their Offshoots "Tibetan is the language of Tibet and the adjoining districts of India; it is spoken by about six million people. It is a member of the Tibeto-Himalayan branch, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman sub-family and the Tibeto-Chinese family of languages. The Indian term Bhotia has been accepted by modern philology to designate the group of languages, of which Tibetan is a member; other Bhotian dialects are spoken in Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Ladakh and Baltistan.
