Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 121

JUNE, 1929 ]
NOTES ON KHOTAN AND LADAKH
111
I pointed out in my article, A language map of Ladalch (JASB., 1904), the population of Khalates probably spoke a Dard dialect in those times.
In the chronicles of Zans-dkar (Antiquities of Indian Tibet, vol. II, p. 156) there is a short passage in which it is stated that Zans-dkar, before the advent of the Tibetans, formed part of Kashmir. That may mean, that Zans-dkar was also included in the great Kushana empire. Now, the reign of Kanishka was one of the grand times of Buddhism. A Buddhist council was held in Kashmir, and Buddhist art flourished in Gandhára. It is therefore probable that all his subjects took part in an enthusiastic movement, and that Buddhism was highly strengthened in Khotan, if not introduced at that time. But the legends of Khotan, which are given in the Tibetan chronicle (prophecy) place the introduction earlier. According to it, a son of Asoka, the founder of Khotan, is credited with it, though there is nothing to show that this was actually the case. Nevertheless, it looks as if in the first and second centuries A.D.--the time of the Kushåņas—there really had been found several monuments of those earlier times. The great difficulty here is that the ancient names of these monuments have been lost and, although a good number of ancient names are given in Tibetan orthography in the “Prophecies," we neither understand them, nor know what they refer to. Sir Aurel Stein is fully convinced that such a remarkable monument as the R&wak-stû pa goes back to the second century A.D. But what is its ancient name? Who erected it?
Other witnesses of the ancient Buddhist times are the very valuable MSS. on palm-leaf, birch-bark and other material, which are found in Turkesian and have become famous as representing the most ancient Indian MSS. in existence. The first remarkable find was that of the Bower Manuscript in A.D. 1890, then of the Dhammapada by Dutreuil de Rhins in 1892, half of which was afterwards sold to the Russians by the natives. Whilst the find-place of that remarkable manuscript was said, by the natives, to have been Gossinga near Khotan, several other no less valuable finds were subsequently made at Kucha. The Manuscript of Buddhist dramas found there, and read and translated by Lüders, actually goes back to the first century A.D., and is pronounced to be the oldest Indian palm-leaf manuscript in existence.
Besides the manuscripts, there are also many coins of the time of the Kushanas found in Turkestan. Even in my own collection there was one piece, which plainly shows the portrait of a Kushana ruler. Among those which were examined by Hoernle, the name of Kujåle-Kadphises could be plainly road. All the pieces are of copper. There exist also Kushåna coins of gold, exhibiting & representation of Buddha inscribed Boddo in Greek characters; but such specimens have been found only in the western provinces of the Kushåņa empire.
The ordinary people of Khotan in the period of Buddhist culture had learnt to read and write, and for their sacred books an ancient character of Gupta type was introduced. We know this from the ancient manuscripts of the Buddhist dramas, the Kalpanamanditika, third or fourth century, and the Bhiksuni-pratimokpa, but for secular correspondence, the Kharoshtht characters were used. Documents in the latter type of writing on wood, paper, and even leather, have been found in great quantities. Professor E. J. Rapson, assisted by A. M. Boyer and E. Sénart, has, after painstaking labour, succeeded in editing two volumes of them with transliterations in Roman characters. The most important of these relics have been translated by Rapson, Lüders and Laumann. It has been possible thus to discover five kings of Loulan, (Shan Shan) in them, and to fix their order of succession. Even the name of a king of Khotan, Avijita-simba, has been discovered in these documents.
As regards the western parts of Tibet also, the present Ladakh, we may be sure that they were not without writing in Kushåņa times. The Kharoshthi inecription of Khalatae has already been mentioned, and bosides that, there have been found two smaller Kharoshtht inscriptions in the same locality. There is moreover even an older Brahmi inscription on the
1 The Dhammapada manuscript, however, is written in Kharoshthi characters.