Indian Antiquary Vol 17

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 39

FEBRUARY, 1888.]
THE BAKHSHALI MANUSCRIPT.
33
THE BAKHSHALI MANUSCRIPT.
BY DR. A. F. RUDOLF HOERNLE. THE Bakhshali manusoript was found, as usually exhibit the numbering of the leaves
I probably the readers of this Journal (ante, are broken off. It is thus impossible even to Vol. XII. p. 89 f.) will recollect, in May 1881, guess what the original number of the leaves near a village called Bakhshåli, lying in the may have been. Yusufzaf Subdivision of the Peshawar District: The leaves of the manuscript, when received at the extreme North-Western frontier of by me, were found to be in great confusion. India. It was dug out by a peasant in a Considering that of each leaf the top and ruined enclosure, where it lay between stones. bottom (nearly two-thirds of the whole leaf) After the find it was at once forwarded to the are lost, thus destroying their connection with Lieutenant-Governor of the Pajab who trans- one another, it may be imagined that it was mitted it to me for examination and eventual no easy task to read the fragments and arrange publication.
them in order. After much trouble I have read The manuscript is written in Sarada charao. and transcribed the whole, and have even ters of a rather ancient type, and on leaves of succeeded in arranging in consecutive order a birch-bark which from age have become dry not inconsiderable portion of the leaves conlike tinder and extremely fragile. Unfortu- taining eighteen sútras. The latter portion I nately, probably through the careless handling have also translated into English. of the finder, it is now in an excessively muti- The beginning and end of the manuscript lated condition, both with regard to the size being lost, both the name of the work and of and the number of the leaves. Their present its author are unknown. The subject of the size (see Plate) is about 6 by 31 inches; work, however, is arithmetic. It contains a their original size, however, must have been great variety of problems relating to daily life. about 7 by 84 inches. This might have been The following are examples :-"In a carriage, presumed from the well-known fact that the instead of 10 horses, there are yoked 5; the disold birch-bark manuscripts were always written tance traversed by the former was one hundred, on leaves of a squarish size. But I was enabled how much will the other horses be able to to determine the point by a curious fact. accomplish P" The following is more comThe mutilated leaf which contains a portion plicated :-"A certain person travels 5 vôjanas of the twenty-seventh sútra shows at top and on the first day, and 3 more on each succeeding bottom the remainders of two large square day; another who travels 7 vijanas on each day, figures, such as are used in writing arithmetical has a start of 5 days; in what time will they notations. These, when completed, prove that meet ?" The following is still more compli. the leaf in its original state must have mea- cated :-"Of 3 merchants the first possesses sured approximately 7 by 8 inches. The 7 horses, the second 9 ponies, the third 10 number of the existing leaves is seventy. This camels ; each of them gives away 3 animals to can only be a small portion of the whole be equally distributed among themselves, the manuscript. For neither beginning nor end is result is that the value of their respective preserved ; nor are some leaves forthcoming properties becomes equal; how much was the which are specifically referred to in the existing value of each merchant's original property, fragments." From all appearances, it must and what was the value of each animal P" The have been a large work, perhaps divided into method prescribed in the rales for the solution chapters or sections. The existing leaves in of these problems is extremely mechanical, and clude only the middle portion of the work or reduces the labour of thinking to a minimum. of a division of it. The earliest sútra that I For example, the last mentioned problem is have found is the ninth; the latest is the solved thus :- * Subtract the gift (3) severally fifty-seventh. The lateral margins which from the original quantities (7, 9, 10). Multiply
See Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for 1892, p. 108.
. A transcript and explanation of this plate will be found in note 6, on p. 47, at the end of this article.
* Thus at the end of the 10th altra, instead of the usual explanation, there is the following noto: Tvar satrandvitfya-patré vivaritásti. The second leaf here referred to is not preserved.