1891.] Dr. Hoernle—BemarJcs on Birch Baric 21 S. 65 



of the palatal s in the S'arada alphabet of Kashmir. The first va,riety 

 of writing is shown in the upper portion of Plate VI published in the 

 November Proceedings ; and the third variety in the lower portion. Of 

 the second variety — one of great neatness — a specimen is now figured 

 in the lower part of Plate I, which accompanies this account. The 

 upper part of this plate gives another specimen of the first variety. The 

 three varieties have no reference to difference of age, but merely 

 indicate difference of locality. The second and third varieties, as shown 

 by their approach to the S'arada characters, were probably current in 

 the extreme North- West of the great area of the Northern class of 

 alphabets, while the first variety was used in the remainder of that 

 area. 



" On examining more closely the several leaves, I noticed that they 

 were evidently mixed up. The leaves written in the different hands 

 followed one another without any order. But I also noticed that many 

 of the leaves were marked with numbers on their left hand margin. 

 Accordingly I cut the string which passed through them and held them 

 together, and arranged them in their proper order, as indicated by 

 their numbers. It then was seen, that 33 leaves, forming the main 

 portion of the MS., followed in consecutive order, and that these 

 33 leaves were written throughout in the first variety of the alphabet. 

 This variety extended to the obverse of the 33rd leaf ; but on the 

 reverse of that leaf commenced the second variety, and went on over five 

 leaves. The remainder of the leaves were written in the third variety. 



*' It further seemed that the three varieties of writing distinguished 

 three different works, the reasons of which I shall explain presently. 



" I now took up the main portion (of 33 leaves), and deciphering the 

 first page of the first leaf, discovered that it contained an. introduc- 

 tion, giving the name of the work and detailing its contents. The work 

 is a compendium of medicine, is named the Ndvanitaka, and consists 

 of sixteen chapters (adkydya). That it was written* by a Buddhist, is 

 seen from the initiatory salutation of the " Tathagatas " or Buddhas. 

 But I have not yet succeeded in tracing anywhere the name of its 

 author. 



" The following is a transcript and translation of the introduction. 

 It is written in Sanskrit verse {sloka). In fact the contents of the 

 whole MS. appear to be composed in slokas." 



* The form of salatation varies according to the creed of the writer of a MS 

 The present salutation is, therefore, not strictly evidence as to the creed of the 

 author of the work, but only as to that of the scribe of the MS. 



