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THE BOWER MANUSCRIPT.*
CHAPTER I.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE BOWER MANUSCRIPT: ITS DATE, LOCALITY, CIRCUMSTANCES, IMPORTANCE, ETC.
THE Bower Manuscript, which is named after its discoverer, Lieutenant (now Major
General) H. Bower, C. B., fell into the hands of that officer, early in the year 1890, in Kuchar, where he had gone, on a confidential mission from the Government of India, in quest of the murderer of Dalgleish.1
Kuchar, or Kuchâ, situated about 41° 42′ 50′′ N. Lat., and 80° 33′ 50′′ E. Long., is the name of one of the principal oases and settlements of Eastern Turkestan, on the great caravan route to China which skirts the foot of the Tian Shan Range of mountains on the northern edge of the Takla Makan desert.
On his return to India, Lieutenant Bower took the manuscript to Simla, whence in September 1890 he forwarded it to Colonel (now Major-General) J. Waterhouse, who was then the President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. By him it was exhibited to the Society at their monthly meeting on the 5th November 1890, when also a short note. (see below, No, i. p. iv) from Lieutenant Bower, dated the 30th September 1890, was read explaining the circumstances of the discovery. Some attempts were made after the meeting to decipher the manuscript, but they proved unsuccessful. At the time I was absent on furlough to Europe. It was on my returu voyage to India that I received the first news of the discovery through a copy of the Bombay Gazette which fell into my hands at Aden. By a lucky chance, Major (now Major-General) W. B. Cumberland whose companion Lieutenant Bower had been during the earlier part of his travels, happened to be a fellow passenger on the steamer, and furnished me with corroborative information. On reaching Calcutta in February 1891, being then the Philological Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, I at once claimed the manuscript from Colonel Waterhouse, who most readily made it over to me. At the April meeting of that year, I was able to communicate to the Society the first decipherment of the manuscript which was immediately published in its Proceedings (April, 1891), pp. 5-1-65.
Reprinted, with additions, from the Introduction to the Edition in Volume XXII of the New Imperial Series of the Archæological Survey of India.
1 See the Geographical Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. V (1895), p. 240.
2 The spelling Kuchar represents the local pronunciation of the name, see M. A. Barth in Comptes Rendus of the Académie des Inscriptions & Belles Lettres, 1907, p. 21. The spelling Kucha, or Kucha, (Chinese K'iatse), as Dr. A. von Le Coq informs me (letter. of 24-10-1909), occurs on coins and public documents. It is used, e. g., in Dr. M. A. Stein's Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, p. 8, et passim, also in M. Chavannes' Documents sur les Turcs Occidentaux, p. 8, et passim. The latter work may be consulted on the ancient history of Kuchar. It is one of the four territories, or so-called "Garrisons," the other three being Kashgar, Khotan, and Karashahr, which anciently constituted Eastern Turkestan.-The Jatitude and longitude of Kuchar above given, are those which have lately been determined by Dr. Vaillant of the French Expedition with a possible slight error of 300 or 400 metres in latitude, and of about 1,000 metres in longitude, as communicated to me by him in his letter of the 5th January 1910. See also his article in the L'année Cartographique, October, 1910.
3 See Proceedings, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1890, p. 222.
4 The whole story of the discovery and decipherment of the Bower Manuscript is reviewed in Sir Alfred Croft's Presidential address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in their Proceedings for 1892, pp. 61-63. See also Sir Charles Elliott's Presidential Address in the Froceedings for 1894, pp. 31-34.
