Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 357

CHAPTER I]
BOWER MANUSCRIPT
sites reputed to be those from which the Bower, Weber, Macartney, and Petrovski Manuscripts had been extracted by the native treasure seekers. The only report on the subject, however, which as yet is available is contained in a letter of M. Pelliot, dated the 29th January 1907, which was read by M, A. Barth to the French Académie des Inscriptions & Belles Lettres in their séance of the 22nd March 1907, and which is published in the Comptes Rendus, pp. 162 ff. It gives an account of all the information which at present, and at this distance of time, appears to be obtainable at the locality of the discoveries itself. M. Pelliot relates (loc. cit. p. 164) that on the 21st January 1907 he went to visit the Ming-oi or rock-cut caves of Qizil to the north-west of Kuchar (see the Sketch Map). On his return he took the more difficult hill route, where he met with a well-educated Turki, named Timur Beg, who was in charge of the copper mines of Kuchar, From this man M, Pelliot elicited some interesting information regarding the discovery of the manuscripts in question. His letter, translated from the original French, proceeds as follows (p. 165) >
From the time of my arrival at Kuchar, Berezovski had spoken to me about 250 bundles of Hinda manuscripts which had been found about a score of years ago, in the ruined grand stūpa of Qutlug Urda, a little to the west of Kuchar. These books, Berezovski told me, had been distributed in a series of small receptacles built into the very brick core of the stupa; and some of them still remained in a certain Turki family which refused to sell them. Berezovski had this information from “his man" as he always called him, a shady person, treasure-seeker and sorcerer on occasion, well acquainted with the country, but a liar without an equal. I have caught him in fagrante delicto on several occasions, and as the places which were shown to me as the ancient receptacles of the book were little capable of ever having contained anything, I was convinced that, even if the discovery was true, at all events the informant, Mir Sheriff, had not been an eye-witness of it.
- Until my meeting with Timur Beg it had seemed to me little probable that we should ever hear much more about the discovery. But while I was conversing with him, he spoke to me, of his own accord, of books which had been found some time ago by treasure seekers at Qutlug Urda. There were about 25 bundles, each between two wooden boards, the whole in an unknown script, measuring about 0-30 by 0-10 metre; also one very large book was found in a bag. The treasure seekers, not knowing what to do with their booty, offered it to Timur Bog's uncle, Ghanizat Khoja, who was the headman of that part of the village. He, however, did not attach to the books any greater value, and thus little by little, being torn by the children, and exposed to neglect, they all got lost. No one suspected that these old papers could possess any value.
"The idea occurred to me that possibly the Bower Manuscript was one of the manuscripts of Ghanizat Khân. For this, however, I had no proof, nor even any serious indications. In fact, as I should explain Bower was told that his manuscript had been found in one of the caves of the Ming.oi of Qum Turi.
This in itself is quite possible; for though, as a rule, the Ming-ois have yielded only detached leaves, the Germans are said to have stumbled at Qizil on an almost complete text. But in any case, it appeared to me very little probable that the particular grotto which had been indicated to Bower, and which, in the course of centuries, had been but little 'encroached upon by the sands, had yielded any manuscript. The find, if it was made at all in Qum Turâ, must have taken place in another grotto.
"But there is another possible solution. I asked Timur Beg whether he aver heard of any of the bundles having been sold to a foreigner. He replied that he had heard say that one of the servants of his uncle had once taken one or two bundles and sold them to the "Afghan" Qadir Khân, who had resold them to an Englishman.37 There is still, at the present day, at Kuchar a Qâdir Khan who, as a fact, is an
* Dr. A. von Le Coq informs me (letter 29th October 1909) that it was a well preserved püthi, tied up between two wooden boards, consisting of a large number (about 60) of leaves in Brahmi script, and Sanskrit language; also one leaf in Brahmi script and an unknown language; measuring about 22x7 cm. It is shown in figs. 6. and 7, Chapter II, pp. xvii and xvill.
57 This is a vague reference; but it cannot refer to Lieut. Bower, who is out of the question, but to Mr. Weber, or to Sir George Macartney, or possibly to both. See below, page xv.