A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c42.6

v3.c42.6

The seven parts of the manuscript are written in an essentially identical script, the Gupta script, which prevailed in Northern India from the fourth to the sixth centuries A.D. Some graphic peculiarities of the Bower MS indicate, according to Hoernle, that it was written at some time within the fourth century A.D.¹¹ Distinctive characters of the script used enabled Hoernle to distinguish four different scribes,¹² who wrote parts I–III, part IV, parts V and VII, and part VI respectively. He also arrived at the conclusion that the writers of parts I–III and V–VII were natives of India who had migrated to Kucā. To judge from the style of writing, the scribe of parts I–III originally came from the northern, the two scribes of parts V–VII from the southern part of the northern area of the Indian Gupta script. The writer of part IV may have been a native of Eastern Turkestan. All four writers must have been Buddhist monks, residing in a monastery near Kucā.