93 
1891.] A. F. R. Hoernle —On the date of the Bower Manuscript. 
tion period , that is to say , in the second half of the fifth century (say, about 
475 A. D.). The portions C and D , however , may he referred to the com¬ 
mencement of that period (say 425 A. D. or even earlier). 
This result will probably be startling to most of my readers. There 
exists,—and I admit, hitherto not without reason—a pretty general 
tendency to discredit any claim to great age on the part of any Indian 
manuscript. I used to incline to the same opinion, and the present 
result was an unexpected one to myself. But I do not see, how the 
force of the evidence can be gainsaid. 
Let us see what the objections are. In the first place it is said, 
that the material of the MS.—birch bark—is of a nature too weak and 
flimsy, to permit us to believe that it could endure for such a length of 
time. This argument has been already well answered by Mr. Bendall 
in his Catalogue of Buddhist Sanskrit MSS. } p. XVII tf., and by Professor 
Biihler in the Anecdota Oxoniensia , vol. I, part III, p. 63 ff. No 
a-priori rule will apply; all depends on the circumstances under which 
a MS. may have been preserved ; and the argument, from the nature of 
the material, will not stand for one moment against positive arguments 
from epigraphic history. According to Lieut. Bower’s account, the 
MS. “ had been dug out of the foot of one of the curious old erections 
just outside a subterranean city near Kuchar.” These erections are 
described as being generally about 50 or 60 feet high, in shape like a 
huge cottage loaf; built solid of sun-dried bricks with layers of beams 
now crumbling away.” I suppose it cannot be doubted that these erec¬ 
tions are Buddhist stupas. Such stupas often contain a chamber enclos¬ 
ing relics and other objects ; these chambers are generally near the 
level of the ground or “ at the foot ” (as it is said) of the erection, and 
they are often dug into by persons who search for hidden treasures. 
In this way the MS. was probably dug out, perhaps not long before it 
was made over to Lieut. Bower, In such a, practically air-tight, 
chamber there is no reason why a birch bark MS. should not endure for 
any length of time. 
Another objection is that the characters used in a MS. are no guide 
to its age. It is said that “ characters of the Gupta type have been 
used in very late times, and indeed are in use to the present day all 
along the region from which the Bower MS. comes.” The characters 
which are here meant, are those used in the Kashmir, Chamba and 
Kangra valleys. They are those which are commonly known by the 
name “ S'arada characters. These, as already remarked, are a variety 
of the North-Western alphabet, and are that variety which has, more 
than any other, preserved the shapes of its anciont parent, the North- 
Western Gupta alphabet. Now it is not quite correct to say, that 
