1S82.] Dr. Hoenile — On a hircli-harh Manuscript. Ill 



lar Sanskrit, But in all probability it was current in the early centuries 

 just before and after the commencement of the Christian era, as a literary 

 or cultivated form of the ancienl Vernacular Praljrit of North Western 

 India, in the countries to the east and west of the Indus, till it came to 

 be superseded by the classical Paninian Sanskrit. It is this language 

 which is employed in the Bakhshali MS. It would be out of place 

 here to enter into philological details ; but I may mention that the 

 language of the MS. is marked by all the peculiarities in orthography, 

 etymology, syntax, etc., of the so-called Gatha dialect. The evidence of 

 the language, then, would tend to show that the work contained in the 

 Bakhshali MS. must be ascribed, in all probability, to the earliest 

 centuries of the Christian era, and further, since the Gatha dialect has 

 hitherto only been met with in Buddhist literature, to a member of the 

 Buddhist community. If the latter supposition be correct, we should 

 have in this MS. tlie first Buddhist Arithmetical work which, so far as I 

 am aware, has hitherto become known. 



There are, further, some specific points in the work contained in the 

 Bakhshali MS. which tend to point to a peculiar connection between it and 

 the mathematical portion of the Brahma Sphuta Siddhanta, the famous 

 astronomical work of Brahmagupta, which was compiled in 628 A. D. 

 Thus an algebraical rule in the MS. occurs in strikingly similar language 

 in Brahmagupta's algebra ; again the foreign terms dindra (Latin denarius) 

 and dramma (Greek drachme) occur in both, etc. The mathematical trea- 

 tise in the Bakhshali MS is undoubtedly older than that of Brahmagupta;: 

 but what the exact connection between the two works may be, I am nob 

 as yet in a position to say. From the language, as already remarked, it 

 would seem to follow that the Bakhshali MS. contains a Buddhist treatise 

 on arithmetic. All these are points which require further investigation, 

 in which I am still engaged, and the results of which I hope to have a 

 future opportunity of communicating to the Society. My present remarks 

 are not intended to be more than a preliminary notice of the MS. In 

 conclusion I will only repeat that the questions of the age of the MS. 

 and of the work contained in it are entirely distinct ; and that the date 

 of the work is certainly very much earlier than the MS. copy of which a 

 fragment has been found. 



De. Hoernle exhibited a number of coins and clay figures, found at 

 Toomluk and forwarded for inspection by R. H. Wilson, Esq , Collector 

 of Midnapur. Amongst them there was a gold coin about which the sub- 

 divisional officer of Toomluk sends the following account : 



" This coin was accidentally discovered in a pit five feet below the sur- 

 face of the ground at the village of Shaurpur in thana Dehra. The place 



