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xxis
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[CHAPTER II
Unfortunately it has never been recorded in what condition the Bower Manuscript was when it was received by Colonel Waterhouse in Calcutta in September 1890. When it came into my hands in February 1891, the leaves of the pôthi were enclosed between its two wooden boards, and a string run through them. In order to examine the leaves, I cut the string, and, on doing so, discovered that they were not arranged in their proper order, but that the leaves of the several parts were mixed up (see Proceedings, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1891., p. 55). How they came into this state of disorder is not known. It does not seem probable that they were so originally when the manuscript was discovered by its Kuchari finders. The people who enshrined it in its receptacle in the stûpa may be assumed to have been able to read it; and they would not have enshrined it in a disorderly condition. But from the time of its discovery, it passed through the hands of, at least, four different persons, all of whom may be assumed with certainty to have cut or unloosed the string to satisfy their curiosity, and none of whom knew, or could read the characters. In the case of Babu Sarat Chandra Das this is certain; for he stated himself to Colonel Waterhouse who had first given him the manuscript to examine, that he had failed to decipher it (see Proceedings, As. Soc. Beng., 1890, pp. 222-3). Moreover two of the leaves were photographed (see ibid., Plate III) by Colonel Waterhouse, before ever the manuscript came into my hands. It may, therefore, be concluded with good reason that the disorderly condition of the manuscript arose only in the course of its passage through the several hands; and it seems not at all improbable that the serious damage done to the folios 16 and 17 of Part II may be due to incautious handling by the original Turki finders in Kuchar. After each examination the leaves seem to have been bound together again by a string, whether the same original string or any other may be doubtful. That they were in this bound condition when they reached the hands of Colonel Weterhouse seems to be expressly stated in the original report, published in the November Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1890, p. 223).
