16 
Dr. Hoernle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
in 782 A.D., both travelling through Central Asia. But these are solitary 
instances. In the 9th and 10th centuries Muhammadanism overran 
Eastern Turkestan; and Buddhist culture fell into rapid decline. That 
under these circumstances, such a knowledge and practice of the Indian 
script as to produce manuscripts of the perfect calligraphy shown in 
our Pothis should have continued to exist among tHe Buddhists of 
Eastern Turkestan is extremely improbable. 
First Set. 
This Set comprises seven Pothis, all written in Sanskrit. 
No. 1. Pothi. (Plate II, fig. 1). 
Belongs to M. 1. Fully described and figured by me (as Set II) 
in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Yol LXYI (1897), 
p. 244, plate x. Incomplete both in size and number of leaves. Maxi¬ 
mum existing size 2|*4§"; original, about 2|x5". Number of lines 
on page, 9 or 10. Leaves mutilated on the right: stringhole on the left: 
existing 25, numbered from 20 to 44, on the reverse pages, as shown by 
the way the leaves adhered to one another. Enclosing boards of wood 
preserved; size, 5§x2J"; stringhole at If" from left edge; inner sur¬ 
faces flat, outer, slightly convex and polished. Paper, same as in No. 1, 
but discoloured (dirty orange) and rotten from damp. Writing much 
damaged through surface-coating peeling off or causing leaves to stick 
together. Findplace, stupa near Kuchar where it is said to have been 
dug out together with the Bower MSS., and Weber MSS. (Introd., 
pp. x, xi). Script, Indian upright Gupta characters. Language, mixed 
Sanskrit prose and verse ($loka). Subject, medical or semi-medical 
treatise, divided into adhyayas or chapters. Age, early 5th or late 
4th century A.D. 
No. 2. Pothi. (Plate II, fig. 2). 
Belongs to M. 1. Fully described and figured by me (as Set I) in 
the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Yol. LXVI (1897), pp. 
237, 241, plates ix and x. Incomplete, both in size and number of 
leaves. Existing size, 2§" x 5", original, 2| x 7f ". Number of lines 
on page, 6. Average number of aksaras, or letters, in a line, 22; missing, 
about 12; total about 34. Leaves mutilated on the left, and hence 
stringhole and leaf-numbers lost. Commencing and concluding leaves 
missing; existing number, 17 ; in the Petrovski Collection, in St. Peters- 
burg, 8; in the Weber Collection in my own possession, 7; total 32 
leaves. (But see Professor S. v. Oldenburg’s remarks in the Records 
of the Oriental Transactions of the Imperial Russian Archaeological 
Society, Yol. XII, page 034). Paper, primitive without waterlines and 
