Report On Kanjur Of Ta Pho

Author(s): Ernst Steinkellner
Publisher: Ernst Steinkellner

Page 18

itself (47). In X, I found a folio (48) of the Pañcavimśatikā manuscript that we collected from the bundles among a number of other different single folios – and of a much later type, with new orthography, and all possessing exactly matching burned edges. This folio has, therefore, been burned after being already mingled with other folios of quite different origins. And such mingling can only have taken place in the monastery. That this group of auto-da-fé victims consisted of well-mingled very old and very late folios would further indicate that this incident happened at a late stage of the library's history.
For the general and thorough disorder of the manuscript remains in this library, there seems to be only one possible explanation: repeated devastation. Tucci (1935: 86 f.) thought only of the visit of Zorawar Singh's army. But as shown above, the last burning — and that definitely seems to be due to a Dogra invasion (49) — was done to a collection already in total disorder. In other words, I think that the thoroughness of the folio mixture in the Ta pho library is the result of several attempts at burning and destroying. The manuscripts and leaves or bundles were probably always thrown out to be burned on the spot (5) or outside. When all was over, they were collected and restored as far as possible to the temple and to their ritual functions. And there must have been always remains from other places at such times to add to those from the monastery itself. There was never need, however, even if sufficiently trained monks were available, to put them back in order, for their ritual function was not diminished.
Even in as 'remote' a valley as this lower Spiti area, there is no want of historical occasions for such catastrophes. The hostile Moslem neighbourhood to the South and
(47) This proof cannot be re-examined, I am afraid. The crucial folio was added to the Pancavimšatikā and is now in LII, while the adjacent folios remain in X. And I forgot to mark or separate them, nor did I make any notes. Anyway, because of the inscriptional and archaeological evidence for a fire inside the 'Du khan (cf. below, fn. 49), this is not the only basis for our conclusions.
(48) The signature is lost.
() An inscription on paper placed between figures 22 and 23 on the north wall immediately to the side of the book shelf refers to a devastation and restoration of the temple during the period of the Dogra wars. It says that 'after the appearence of [Zorawar] Singh's army (sen gyi dmag) on the 16th day of the 9th month of the fire-bird year (i.e. 1837 A.D.) and the subsequent demolishing (bzig) of the statues (sku) in this temple (sprul pa'i gtsug lag khan) the monks who had escaped ('byol sor) began a restoration ('byol gsos ?) there on the 5th day of the 4th month of the earth-dog year (i.e. 1838 A.D.)' (me bya zla ba dgu pa'i tshes bcu drug la sen gyi dmag thon nas sprul [: sphrull pa'i gtsug lag khan 'di yi sten sku mams bźig (: sig] nas de la 'byol son dge 'dun mams kyis sa khyi zla ba bzi pa'i tshes Ina 'byol gsos (: sos] kyi 'go btsug pa yin D.
A fire is not mentioned in this inscription, but the whole wall at this spot is rebuilt and must have been broken down (oral communication from D. Klimburg-Salter) as a result of considerable destructive efforts that may have included an attempt at burning the library too.
The incident may well have taken place during the time of the flight of mTshog sprul to Spiti, when 'he was hotly pursued' and finally reached Bashahr in October 1937 (Petech 1977: 142).
(59) As in the case of Zorawar Singh's ravaging.
132
[18]