6-4 Dr. Hocrnle — Bemarh on 'Birch Baric MS. [April, 



to be clearly shown by his carious system of numbering the several 

 slokas of a set. Thus the three slokas of the sdpata set are num- 

 bered 443, 434 and 344, which does not mean ' four hundred and 

 forty-three,' ' four hundred and thirty-four,' and ' three hundred and 

 forty -four.' This would have no meaning. The position of the figures 

 in the three series imparts no numerical value ; 4 means ' four,' and 3 

 means ' three,' in whatever position they may be. The three series 

 can only be read ' four four three,' ' four three four ' and ' three four 

 four; ' and the variation in the position of the three unit figures only 

 serves to enumerate three different slokas. Now the discoveries of the 

 zero and of the value of position may, with much probability, be placed 

 at some time within the sixth century A. D. ; and thus the writing of 

 our MS., must be referred to a time, not later than the beginning of 

 that century, or about 500 A. D. 



" This, I believe, makes our MS. the oldest Indian written book that 

 is known to exist. There is indeed another MS. which is nearly as old; 

 that is, the so-called Horiuzi MS., published in the Anecdota Oxonien- 

 sia, Vol. III. But if I understand the case rightly, that MS. consists 

 only of two leaves, and is preserved, not in India, but in Japan. Pro- 

 fessor Biihler, who has described it, assigns to it the date of about 550 

 A. D. The MSS., next in age, are two Nepalese of the Cambridge 

 collection, t'l^;.. Add. 1049 and 1702, described in Mr. Bendall's Catalogue, 

 pp. xxxix ff. ; and the so-called Bakhshali MS., described by myself in 

 the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVII, pp. 33ff. It will be observed that both 

 Nepalese MSS. exhibit throughout the modern form of ya (though in 

 slightly differing variations) as it became established at the end of the 

 sixth century A. D. As the Bodhgaya inscription of Mahanaman, of 588 

 A. D., shows throughout the same form of ya, it appears to me not 

 impossible that the MS., Add. 1049, dated Samvat 252, which is 

 referred by Mr. Bendall to 857 A. D., may really be placed in 571 A. D. 

 being dated in terms of the Gupta era. Neither the old, nor the inter- 

 mediate forms of ya occur in the Nepalese MSS., while in our MS. 

 these are the only forms that are employed, the modern form being, 

 conspicuous by its entire absence. 



" I may note one or two other peculiarities. In the first place, the 

 oldest form of the long vowel a is a small horizontal stroke attached 

 to the top of the right side of a consonant. A peculiar modification of 

 this form is the attachment of the stroke to the middle of the right side 

 This form has, so far as I am aware, hitherto only been noticed in the 

 Allahabad stone pillar inscription of Samudra Gupta, which dates from 

 about 400 A. D., see Fleet, Corpus Insc. Lid. Vol. III., p. 4. Compare, 

 e. g., the akshara 3IT of JITl" in line 31 of that inscription with the HI of 



