________________ 000 VAISALI IN GILGIT MANUSCRIPTS YOGENDRA MISHRA, M. A., SAHITYARATNA In 1931 several Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts were discovered in a stupa near Gilgit. It was a chance discovery made by a cowboy. The Government of Kashmir and Jammu took charge of the manuscripts and are arranging the publication of these "Gilgit Manuscripts." Parts of them have been published and the remaining ones will be published in due course. They are being edited by Dr. Nalinaksha Dutt, Ph. D., D. Litt, and Vidyavaridhi Pt. Shiva Nath Sharma, Sastri, D. O. C. The manuscripts were written in Gupta characters of the 5th or 6th century A. D. and as such they are some of the earliest so far discovered in India, similar to the Bower manuscripts and to those discovered in Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan. Most of the Manuscripts were known to us only through their Chinese and Tibetan translations and no one dreamt of the discovery of their Sanskrit originals. 18. The language of the manuscripts is similar to that of the Mahavastu, Lalitavistara and other works. In a general way we may remark that the language of the early Mahayana texts is really a Prakrit of a peculiar type. In the language of the "Gilgit Manuscripts" we find endless examples of irregularities. There are several instances which distinctly prove that the compiler worked on a Prakrit original and found difficulty in Sanskritising the Prakrit words. Vaisali, which occupies so prominent a place in Buddhism, is mentioned in the Gilgit Manuscripts on several occasions. Indeed the scene of many Sutras is located there. A particular section of the text (i.e., the first section of the Civaravastu in the Vinaya Texts of the Mulasarvastivadas published in Gilgit Manuscripts, Volume III, Part 2, pp. 1-52) throws interesting light on the life and culture of the Licchavis of the 6th century B. C. The importance of this particular section has
