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MAY, 1892.] ANOTHER INSTALMENT OF THE BOWER MANUSCRIPT. 129
ANOTHER INSTALMENT OF THE BOWER MANUSCRIPT.
BY PROFESSOR A. F. RUDOLF HOERNLE.
THE THE first instalment of the Bower Manuscript was published by me in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1891. The portion which I now publish I have chosen for the second instalment, because it represents another of the subjects which are treated of in the several treatises comprising the Bower Manuscript. So far as I can make out at present, these treatises deal with three different subjects, viz., medicine, divination and conjuration. On medicine there are (apparently) two distinct treatises; a long and a short one. The latter I have published in the Journal A. S. B., as a specimen of medicine. On divination or fortune-telling there are two short treatises; one of these I publish in the present paper. On conjuration, or the use of magic spells, there is one short treatise. This I hope to publish as my next instalment of the Manuscript.
The portion now published consists of five leaves. Their shape and size are exactly like those of the portion previously published; that is, the leaves are a narrow oblong, measuring 11 by 2 inches. A specimen, being the obverse of the second leaf, is published in the lower part (No. II.) of Plate I., issued with the April Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The treatise to which it belongs is referred to in my paper "On the Date of the Bower Manuscript" (ante, p. 29)1 as the "second portion, called B." I have there ascribed the writing of this portion, which is in a fine, ornate hand, to a scribe distinct from him who wrote the portion given in my first instalment. The most striking differences are the two following. In the first place, the palatal é is made in the form of a square with a circular loop at the lower left-hand corner, exactly like the modern Nagari m (4), while in the portion given in the first instalment that letter has a rounded top, and no circular loop, but a minute forked tail. The latter is the older Gupta form, while the former already closely approaches the form shown in the Horiuzi M8. and in the Sarada alphabet, in which the letter is also square, but the loop is replaced by a dot. Both forms may be seen on Plate I, above referred to. In the second place, some letters, (especially a, k, g, r, and occasionally t, bh), are provided with a very distinct hook at the bottom of the main perpendicular. This hook looks exactly like the mark of the vowel u, as attached to other letters, such as m, 8, p, &c. Accordingly, when the vowel t is to be joined to those hooked letters, it assumes a different shape, that of a more or less large curve, turned to the left. Examples may be seen on the same plate.
Though written on five distinct leaves, the work inscribed on them only occupies eight pages. The obverse of the first leaf contains, as I have already stated elsewhere, the concluding portion of a medical treatise, but whether of the long one, or of some other, I am not, as yet, quite certain. At the bottom of this obverse page, there is the remark ity-atra svété évéadhipatyé batasy-ádhikarané sváhá, the meaning of which I do not understand. It is in larg cursive letters, in a hand distinct from that which wrote the medical treatise, as well as from that which wrote the treatise on divination; which commences on the reverse of the leaf. It seems to be, however, the same handwriting as that which is seen in some other portions of the manuscript. The most natural conclusion that one can draw is, that the treatise on divination was written after the treatise on medicine, as it commences on the back of the latter.
The fourth leaf is inscribed only on the obverse. It consists of no less than four layers of bark, but they are all so thin and flimsy, that a considerable portion is broken and frayed. Even the obverse is only partially inscribed, and the reverse is probably thought by the scribe to be unfit for writing on. In any case nothing of the text is lost. That part of it which commences on the obverse of the fifth leaf, follows immediately after that which is written on the obverse of the fourth. In fact, the material used for this portion of the manuscript
1 Also in Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LX., Part I., pp. 80, 81, * See Proceedings Asiatic Society of Bengal, for April 1891, p. 5
