Bower Manuscript - Bower Manuscript

Bower Manuscript

The Bower Manuscript is named after Hamilton Bower who, being then a lieutenant, obtained it early in the year 1890, in Kucā, from a local inhabitant during a confidential mission from the Government of India. Kucā is the name of one of the principal oases and settlements of China's Xinjiang (then province, now autonomous region), on the ancient great caravan route to Xi'an. The MS was found by native treasure- seekers in a stūpa close to the Ming­ Öi (the "Thousand Houses", a system of rock-cut grottos with Buddhist shrines) of Qum Turā about 13 (or 16) miles from Kucā, in February 1890. On his return to In­dia, Lieutenant Bower took the MS to Simla, whence it was forwarded to Colonel J. Waterhouse, who was then the President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Colonel Wa­terhouse exhibited the MS at the monthly meeting of the Society on November 5, 1890, when also a note from Lieutenant Bower was read, explaining the circumstances of the discovery. After the meeting some attempts were made to decipher the MS, but they proved unsuccessful. However, a German Indologist, G. Bühler, succeeded in reading and translating two leaves of the MS, reproduced in the form of heliogravures in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Immediately after his return to India in February 1891, A. F. R. Hoernle began to study the MS. At the meeting of the Society in April 1891, he was able to communicate the first decipherment. The Government of India sanctioned, in 1892, Hoernle's proposal to prepare a complete edition of the text, illustrated with facsimile plates, and accompanied by an annotated English trans­lation. The first part of the edition appeared in 1893, the second part (in two fasciculi) in 1894-95, and the remaining parts in 1897.

After an interruption of several years, the Sanskrit Index was published in 1908, and a revised translation of the medical portions (I,II,and III) in 1909; the Introduction appeared in 1912.