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228
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1885.
A NOTE ON A SECOND OLD SANSKRIT PALMLEAF MANUSCRIPT
FROM JAPAN.
BY DR. G. BUHLER, C.I.E. Through the kindness of Professor Max | the most remarkable ;-1, the tops of the Müller I am enabled to describe a very interest- letters kha, ga, and sa, are invariably round;-2, ing find lately made in Japan. The search for the prolongation of the vertical strokes on the ancient Sanskrit MSS. which Mr. Bunyiu left of the letters gha, cha, pa, ma, etc., is Nanjio institutes there, has brought to light a frequently wanting ;-3, the small vertical stroke second fraganent, consisting of a single leaf, at the lower end of da is mostly wanting :-4, ya which possesses a high importance for Indian shows twice or thrice the tripartite form of the palmography. According to the eye-copy Gupta inscriptions, which is found also in the before me, which appears to have been made Nep. Inscrs. 1-12; more frequently the tranwith great care, the leaf measures 32 centi- sitional form with a loop, found in the Cammetres by 3. Each page contains six lines bridge MS. No. 1702 (Bendall, Catalogue, with 58-77 aksharas. Each line is broken up, Table of letters); and rarely the form of H.P.;-- according to the usage observable also in other 5, ra consists occasionally of a simple vertical ancient palmleaf MSS., into three parts, blank stroke with the serif, just as in Gu. Ku. (An. spaces of the breadth of two aksharas being Ox. III. 1, Table VI. col. IVa); more frequent left near the holes for passing the strings. The is the form of Ne. Inscrs. No. 15 (loc.cit. col. VI.); leaf appears to be well preserved, as only about and rarer that of H.P.;--6, va is always made a dozen aksharas have been destroyed. The triangular, the bottom-line sloping to the right; writing is less carefully done than that of the -7, sa shows occasionally the form of Gu. Ku. Horiazi Palmleaf, which is a model piece of with a loop, and more frequently that of Gu. calligraphy. There are also a number of bad Ind. (loc. cit. cols. IVa and IVb) ;-8, the clerical mistakes and some corrections. The medial d-stroke turns upwards not only after second side, or súska-prishtha, bears on the left ja, but also after pa, and rises in the latter case margin the number 129, expressed by the from the left-hand vertical stroke; it shows ancient signs of the aksharapalli, 100 + 20 besides the wedge-shape of H. P., also other + 9, which are placed vertically in the order varieties, found hitherto only in inscriptions ; indicated, one below the other. The sign for 9, medial 6 has once the form of Gu. Ku., in all 100 is a variety of su, and holds the middle other cases those of H.P.;-10, the division of between the second Gupta form in 400 (Dr. the sentences and periods is invariably marked, Bhagwânlal's Table (Ind. Ant. VI. 45), and the as on the ancient copper-plates, by one or two seemingluof the Eastern copper-plates (ibidem) very short horizontal strokes; where two and of the Cambridge MS. No. 1702 (Ben- strokes are used it is difficult to distinguish dall, Catalogue, Table of Letter-numerals). The them from the visarga. In two points, the sign for 20, tha, is a little more ancient than form of the initial a and of na, the MS. frethat used in the just-mentioned Cambridge quently agrees with the Jhâlrâpâțhan inscripMS. And that for 9, 8, resembles the sign of tion (loc. cit. col. V.) Most peculiar is the the Valabhî plates (Ind. Ant. loc. cit.) The notation of u in rú. The latter sign looks like characters of the new document are closely rá-u, because one of the u-strokes is attached related to those of the Horiuzi Palmleaf (Anec. to the top of the ra, while the other stands in dota Oxon. I. 3. Table VI.) But they show a the usual place. A similar separation of the considerable number of older forms which two elements of the 1 is known to me only connect them with the Gupta alphabet of from the inscription on the Jagayyapetta Kuhảon (Anecd. Ox. loc. cit.), and with the Stúpa (Ind. Ant. XI. 257).' All these various oldest Nepalese inscriptions (Ind. Ant. IX. 164). points indicate, it seems to me, that the new Among these archaic forms the following are MS. is much older than the Horiuzi Palm.
Translated from the Oestreichische Monatsschrift für den Orient, Vol. XI. p. 68.
Compare also the following instances from Southern India,-rdahtrakui(k)a .........samahud(hd)ya,
in Sanskrit and Old-Kanarese Inscriptions, No. CLIII. line 77-78 (ante, p. 53); duidu)rata, id. 1. 92; and ind-wi(a)parigé, id. 1. 103.-ED.
