1897.] Central Asian Manuscripts. . 245 
Professor Biihler in illustration of his essay on Indian Palaeography, 37 
that the marks, enumerated by me below, have, in their cumulation, 
entirely disappeared from all engraved records (copperplates, stone- 
tablets, rocks, etc.) in India, from about the seventh century (say, 
650 A.D.). It is a natural result of the process of engraving that 
archaic forms of letters, which as a rule are simpler and stiffer than 
cursive ones, conserve themselves much longer in such records than 
in manuscripts. It is a principle, now universally admitted, that 
manuscripts show the presence of cursive forms very much earlier 
than engraved records. It may be expected, therefore, that the marks 
above referred to will have disappeared very much earlier from all 
manuscripts, to give place to their corresponding cursive forms. This 
expectation is fully born out by the Bower MS., the date of which, 
from the occurrence in it of a special cursive form (the intermediate 
ya ), can with certainty be fixed to be about 450 A.D., i.e ., about two 
centuries anterior to the term above-mentioned for engraved records. 
In that manuscript, indeed, none of the marks, enumerated below, occur 
at all. On the other hand, in our Macartney MS., they are all present 
in cumulation. This proves very clearly that this Macartney MS. must 
be very considerably older than the Bower MS. Further, some of those 
marks have disappeared from engraved records, from about the end 
of the fourth century (say, 400 A.D.). They prevail in them in the 
first, second and third centuries : they also prevail in this Macartney 
MS. It may, therefore, as it seems to me, safely be concluded that this 
Macartney MS. may not be dated later than the middle of the fourth 
century, and that it may be very much older. Provisionally I would 
suggest 350 A.D. as a fairly safe date. This result makes this particular 
Macartney MS. the oldest existing Indian manuscript. For, though 
found in Central Asia, it is abundantly clear from the characters of its 
writing, that if not written in India itself (which, for my part, I am 
disposed to doubt on account of the material on which it is written), 
it was written by a Native of India, or an Indian Buddhist, who had 
emigrated to Central Asia. 38 
The marks, above referred to, are the following :— 
(1) Initial long a, with curve, indicating length, attached to the 
right-hand side of the vertical line ; disappears from the fourth century. 
After that date, the curve is attached to the foot of the vertical line, 
and this is also the case in the Bower MS. See fi. 2 3a l > 8 . 
37 In the Encyclopedia of Indo-aryan research. See his Plates III to V. 
33 It is a well-known fact that Indian Buddhist teachers, either on their own 
initative, or on vocation by others, frequently settled in foreign parts {e.y, libet 
and China). 
J. i. 32 
