Report On Kanjur Of Ta Pho

Author(s): Ernst Steinkellner
Publisher: Ernst Steinkellner

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word at a period long before the canonical collections and the establishment of their sectional structures and diversity in the 14th century (28).
4. Palaeography and Orthography
Nearly all folios are written in a clear and mostly beautiful dbu can script (Figs. 4-7). These leaves, from the oldest manuscripts onwards, testify to very high standards in writing and calligraphic training. Only a few leaves fall below the average high quality.
The folios show hardly any differences of aging relative to one another, and the palaeographic and orthographic differences are the only ones of immediate use for establishing a chronology.
Since we have long inscriptions on the temple's walls with palaeographic and orthographic peculiarities of the same kind as in some manuscript remains, the shape and form of the texts contained in these manuscripts can indeed be attributed to the same time as the wall inscriptions. This gives us an absolute date, for the temple was founded in all probability in 996 A.D. and renovated in 1042 A.D. as traditionally accepted (cf. Klimburg-Salter 1987: 685), or in 1008 A.D. and renovated in 1054 as recently proposed by L. Petech (29). And in terms of these fragments' significance for textual history, it is not crucial whether the presently extant folios remain from the actual originals of the collection's beginnings, or 'only' from faithful copies made in -- not too much - later times (cf. Tucci 1935: 87); though naturally this is true only as long as they are faithful copies.
The palaeographic (1. inverted i; 2. s-P, S-t, s-ts-ligatures of a horizontal kind) as well as orthographic and phonetic peculiarities (3. putting a tsheg before sad; 4. haplography in case of the same end- and beginning-consonants; 5. palatalisation of m before i and e by means of subscript y; 6. occurrence of da drag; 7. exaggerated use of 'a chun) (30) will finally serve as a clue for the relative chronology of these and other manuscripts of this kind. These features occur all together or in various combinations. It is possible that the occurrence of all peculiarities together means the greatest antiquity, and that later one feature after the other fades away. But persistent conservativism on the one hand and later archaizing mannerisms (31) on the
(28) For more details on the collection's contents, cf. below, pp. [14] f.
(29) In a lecture 'Jüngste Forschungen zur Frühgeschichte des Königreichs Guge (Westtibet)' given at our institute on March 19, 1991. A final version of this paper will be included in a volume published from the Tucci Archives, IsMEO, on the medieval Buddhist remains in Spiti-Kunawar commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Tucci.
(30) Cf. Taube 1980: 11 ff.; Eimer 1991: 251. Of course, the peculiarities mentioned are only the most conspicuous cases. A complete survey will most probably reveal additional features.
(1) There are, e.g., folios with relatively 'modern' writing which show an occasional da drag.
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