6 
Dr. Hoernle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
Section III.—MANUSCRIPTS. 
Tlie manuscripts, comprised in the British Collection, fall into two 
groups, which may conveniently be distinguished as Pothis, or books 
done up in the Indian fashion, and Documents consisting of single sheets. 
Number. 
Findplaee. 
First Group. Pothis. 
Altogether there are thirteen Pothis in the Collection. None of 
them is complete, and of most of them no 
more than a few leaves or fragments of leaves 
exist. The only exceptions are Nos. 1 and 2 of Set I and No. 1 of Set 
II, of which 25, 17, 17 leaves respectively survive. These three Pothis 
belong to the Macartney MSS. They, as well as some other Pothis? 
belonging to the Godfrey MSS., have been already described by me in 
the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Yol. LXYI for 1897 ; 
but for the sake of completeness and some additional information, since 
obtained, they will be here briefly re-described. 
Three of the Pothis, viz., the Macartney MSS., Nos. 1 and 2 of Set I 
and No. 1 of Set II, are said to have been 
found in the identical Stupa near Kuchar in 
which also the Bower MSS. and the Weber MSS. were discovered. Their 
discovery has been related in the Introduction, pp. x-xii. In corrobora¬ 
tion of the existence of a possible deposit chamber from which they were 
dug out, I may now add that, as Dr. Stein informs me in a letter, written 
from Yarkand (24th September 1900), he found, about 20 miles N.-E. of 
Kashghar, in a place called Khannui, a “ remarkably well preserved 
Stupa with its Vihara,” in which “ a cutting made a long time ago had 
laid bare a square chamber and shaft inside.” Native testimony, how¬ 
ever, as Dr. Stein has since verbally explained to me, even if honestly 
given, is very unreliable; and it is by no means certain that, even if the 
stupa near Kuchar contained a chamber, the manuscripts were found in 
it. Still from their appearance which shows no sign of the action of 
sand on them, it seems clear that they must have been preserved in some 
receptacle ; and there seems, therefore, in this particular case, no suffi¬ 
cient reason to discredit the native report of their having been dug out 
from the chamber of a stupa (see Introd., p. xi). The case is different 
with regard to the other Pothis. They show distinct signs of the action 
of sand on them ; and they must have come from a sand-buried site. 
