Indian Antiquary Vol 42

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

Page 387

CHAPTER III]
BOWER MANUSCRIPT
jutting e (a). This combination, in the slanting variety, of different Indian fashions of writing seems to suggest that that variety originated among the native Kuchari converts to Buddhism, while the upright variety persisted among the Indian Buddhist immigrants and their descendants. For it should be noticed that both the Sâradâ script, which originated from the Gupta script, and the Horiuzi script, which occupies a position intermediate between the Gupta and Sâradâ, agree with the upright variety of the Kuchari script in conserving the southern Gupta fashion of writing ê, ru and rû, and 6,60 The considerable modification in the forms of some letters, such as m and y (Fig. 15, c and d), presupposes a not inconsiderable interval of time to have passed since the introduction of the Gupta script into Eastern Turkestan and the production of the Bower Manuscript. As the date of the latter is probably to be referred to the second half of the fourth century (see Chapter V), the date of the Weber Manuscripts may be placed within the sixth century, or possibly a little earlier.
xxxfil
It has been stated (ante, p. xxix) that Part IV must have been written by a person different from the two writers of Parts V-VII, as well as from the writer of Parts I-III. From the latter the writer of Part IV differs (see Plate I) by the use of the flat-topped 38 against the use of the round-topped in Parts I-III. From the former he differs by the use of the plain ê, as well as the northern ru and rû, as against the jutting ê and the southern ru and rû of Parts V-VII. Further from both, the writer of Parts I-III as well as the writers of Parts V-VII, the scribe of Part IV differs in the following striking points. In the first place, he writes the initial vowel ri in a way quite peculiar to himself. In Parts I-III it is written quite differently, as may be seen from Table I. In Parts V-VIL that vowel does not happen to occur at all. It is altogether a character of very rare occurrence. From the epigraphic records of India, as may be seen by a reference to the Tables in Bühler's Indian Palæography, it appears to be altogether absent. In the Horiuzi Manuscript (first half of the sixth century) it resembles rather the character for the vowel a. In the Sâradâ script, also, it has a very simple form, though quite different from that in Part IV. The full data for an effective comparison, therefore, are not available. All that can be said is that the form of the initial vowel ri, which is seen in Part IV, stands quite by itself.
In the second place, in Part IV the initial vowel i is written quite differently from Parts I-III on the one side, and from Parts V-VII on the other. The character for the vowel i is made up of three dots arranged triangularly (see Table 1). With the exception of Part IV, all the Parts agree in placing the dot, which forms the apex, below the two dots which form the base of the triangle; with this difference, however, that in Parts V-VII the apicular dot is made plain, while in Parts I-III it is furnished with a tail. But in part IV the arrangement of the dots is exactly reversed; the apicular dot has the superior position. The evidential value of this difference, however, is not quite assured.
66 The line of graphic descent, on the present evidence, appears to be as follows: The southern Gupta travels in the fourth century northwards, through Kashmir and Udyâna, to Kuchar in Eastern Turkestan In Kashmir it develops gradually, through the Horiuzi script (6th cent.), into the Sâracia (7th cent.). In Kuchar it develops, contemporaneously with the Horiuzi stage, into the slanting variety of the Kuchari script (6th cent.).