Book Description

Khotanese Texts 1-3. Vol. 4 : These documents, written in Ancient Khotan, but in a dialect of the Sakas, or Indo-Scythians, were found by the late Sven Hedin and his colleagues in Khotan. They are literary texts, business letters and military orders of the 8th century AD. Professor Bailey has added a translation and commentary has also written an introduction. Vol. 5 : In the first decade of this century numerous documents were found, a considerable number written in Ancient Khotan, but in a dialect of the Śakas, or Indo-Scythians, who from the first century BC to the third century AD were dominant in North-western India. This fifth volume completed the printing of the texts. When it was published in 1963, it contained a large number of fragments and other pieces published for the first time, as well as the Hoernle Collection, the Samguata-Sutra folios and the Karma Text. Vol. 6 : The Book of Zambasta is Professor Bailey's name for a collection of Śaka-Khotanese texts previously designated as E. The texts were first published in Berlin in the period 1933-6. The prolexis is a close commentary on the establishment of the text. It contains all the evidence for the interpretation of words not previously understood. Vol. VII : Sir Harold Bailey has studied and interpreted the northern area of Indian Buddhist culture in the Khotan Saka documents of Central Asia dated between the fifth and tenth centuries AD. In this volume he discusses the form, provenance and identity of the peoples known to the Court of the Kingdom of Khotan and included within the Khotanese texts.