1891.] A. F. R. Hoernle— On the date of the Bower Manuscript. 83 
Now the Bower MS. is distinctly written throughout in the North- 
Western alphabet. This is an important point and must be kept in view 
throughout the following enquiry. The age of our MS. must be judged 
solely by the facts as disclosed by the circumstances of the North 
Western alphabet. No conclusion that can be drawn from circum¬ 
stances connected with the South Indian or the North-Eastern alphabets 
may be applied to the determination of the age of our MS. For it 
stands to reason, that no scribe, who was habituated to write in the 
North Western alphabet, would in any writing of his habitually introduce 
any peculiarity of the South Indian or North Eastern alphabets, with 
which he was not familiar. 
Having premised this much, I proceed to the consideration of the 
points that appear to me to afford the means of determining approxi¬ 
mately the date of the Bower MS* 
Among the existing varieties of the North-Western alphabet, there 
is one which has most nearly retained its ancient character. This is 
the so-called S'arada alphabet, which is still current in Kashmir and 
the adjacent Sub-Himalayan provinces, such as the Chamba and 
Kangra valleys. The most striking point of difference between the 
S'arada alphabet and its more ancient parent, the original North-Western 
alphahet, is the sign for the letter ya. The S'arada alphabet uses the 
modern cursive form if, while the original North-Western alphabet 
employed the more ancient tridental form cJ/. This is the test letter by 
which any inscription or manuscript written in the S'arada characters 
may be at once distinguished from any inscription or manuscript written 
in the more ancient North-Western alphabet. The latter I shall, for the 
sake of convenience, briefly distinguish as the Gupta alphabet. The 
oldest MS. in the S'arada characters, of the existence of which we know, 
is the so-called Horiuzi MS., of which Professor Biihler has published an 
account and illustrative plates, in Volume I, Part III of the Anecdota 
Oxoniensia.* According to him, “ it is certain that this MS. cannot 
date later than the first half of the sixth century A. D.” (ibid., p. 64). 
It employs throughout the modern cursive form of ya. On the other 
hand, the Bower MS., though showing in the writing of parts A and E, 
in many respects, a very decided resemblance to the S'arada characters, 
employs in the portions BCD exclusively, in AE almost exclusively, the 
older tridental form of the letter ya. It follows, therefore, that the 
Bower MS. is not written in the S’arada alphabet, but in the more ancient 
* “ S'arada ” is the name of a small group of alphabets, the varieties of which 
differ a little according to locality (Kashmir, Chamba, etc.) or period or material 
of writing, etc. ; but the essential unity of the group is well known, and it is usual 
to call it S'arada. 
