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pothi

Or.8212/1594

ink on silk

Overview

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Title

Pothi Buddhist manuscript in Sanskrit on silk.

Date

500 to 599

Find site

Bashkoyumal

Measurement

height 13 centimetres, width 30.5 centimetres

Material

ink on silk

Language / script

Sanskrit (lang.) Gupta (script)

Subject

Buddhism

Description

Scope and content : This is the only known example of a manuscript on silk - a tradition from China - cut into pothi shape - a tradition from south Asia. It has been covered with a chalk ground to take the ink, which has been written in pen. It was discovered below a niche, at the base of a brick stupa inside the fort at Bash-Koyumal.

Institution

British Library

Provenance

Stein 1913-16

Find site identifier

BKoy.

Stein site number

B.Koy.i.016-l20

Find site description

Ruined enclosure containing a stupa situated approximately 5 miles south of Charkhlik, on the southern arm of the Silk Road.

Excavation history : Stein visited in 1907 (Stein 1921: 314) and again in January 1914 (Stein 1928: 166ff) and noted that the remains showed signs of superificial searching in places by Tachibana on the Otani expedition of 1910-11.

Short description : Polyagonal enclosure containing stupa.

Zwalf,WBuddhism, Art and FaithLondonBritish Museum1985ChinaBuddhismArtGoldenLight

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