There were once a large number of manuscripts of Kālacakra Tantra and its commentaries in India. However, as Buddhism disappeared from India during the 12th and 13th centuries, a large body of Buddhist literature was lost. Many of the literary manuscripts were taken to neighbouring countries and regions such as Nepal and Tibet. In the 19th century, when European scholars commenced their studies in Buddhism, abundant literary materials in Nepal were discovered. B.H. Hodgson, an English administrator, ethnologist and a resident at the royal court of Nepal, bequeathed 144 manuscripts to the Asiatic Society in Kolkata with a view to preserving them. Among the manuscripts that have been collected is this unique and complete text of the Vimalaprabhā. All other known manuscripts of the Vimalaprabhā are incomplete. The complete palm-leaf manuscript was copied in the thirty-ninth year of Harivarman of Bengal (last half of 10th century), which makes this the oldest extant copy of the commentary, transcribed a little over one hundred years after the commentary was composed.
Pages from the palm-leaf manuscript
The collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies
Inscribed 1997
What is it
This unique collection of works by the great scholars, poets and thinkers of Central Asia contains many original manuscripts and rare copies of major works on history, literature, philosophy, law, mathematics, the sciences and the fine arts.
Why was it inscribed
These manuscripts are of great significance in the development of Islamic science and culture as well as for the study of the history and culture of the peoples of Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Arab world, and of the political, diplomatic and cultural relations between them.
Where is it
Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
The collection of around 18,000 manuscripts is one of the richest depositories of Central Asian manuscripts in the world and reflects the importance of this region at the heart of the cultural exchange that took place along the Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean.
Many of the great medieval scholars, poets and thinkers of Central Asia and the Near and Middle East are represented in this collection. Their work has greatly enriched our spiritual life and contributed to the advancement of science, whether in geography and mathematics (the works of al-Biruni), astronomy (Ulugh Bey’s comprehensive Star Charts), philosophy (for example in the works of al-Farabi), medicine (Ibn Sina’s Canon) and in works of great literature (including the writings of Ferdowsi, Rumi and Khayyam). In addition, many works are invaluable for the study of Central Asian history, such as the 10th-century Takhkiki Viloyat’ and Bukharo Tarikhi’ by Ibn Jaffar Narshani, which describes the great trading city and Islamic intellectual centre of Bukhara, now in Uzbekistan. A number of historical works relate to the Mughal dynasty including the Tabakati Akbarshahi’ by al-Kharavi, dating from 1595, which serves as the main source for the history of India during that period.
The collection as a whole reflects the remarkable flowering of Islamic science and culture during the Middle Ages which was later to exercise a profound influence on Renaissance scholars in Europe. One of the oldest manuscripts (by Ibn Salam) is from AD 837.
A diagram showing the phases of the moon from al-Biruni’s Tafkhim li Availi Sinaat al-Tandjim (‘The Book of Teaching of the Fundamentals of Astrology’). The Collection contains one of the oldest copies of this very important astronomical work.
Among the rare works in the collection are one of the oldest known copies of al-Biruni’s Tafkhim li Availi Sinaat al-Tandjim (‘The Book of Teaching of the Fundamentals of Astrology’); fragments of poems by Ibn Sina, better known as philosopher and physician, and the only known copy of his book Salman and Ibsal; the Haft Awrang (‘Seven Colours’) and other works by Jami in the author’s own hand; one of the only three known copies in the world of the Kitab-e-Sindibad (‘The Book of Sindbad’). Many of the manuscripts contain exceptional examples of calligraphy, while others contain wonderful miniatures and elaborate contemporary bindings.
The collection was started with the founding of the Department of Oriental Studies at the Uzbekistan Public Library in 1870. The collections of the Scientific Research Institute of Samarkand, the Ibn Sina Library of Bukhara, the libraries of the Khans of Khiva and many others were added, and in 1943 the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies became the home of these collections.
Philippine paleographs (Hanunoo, Buid, Tagbanua and Pala’wan)
Inscribed 1999
What is it
Four samples of Philippine paleographs dating back to at least the 10th century, in four of the traditional scripts of the islands – Hanunoo, Buid, Tagbanua and Pala’wan.
Why was it inscribed
The paleographs are syllabaries – that is, characters that represent complete syllables – and are the only four surviving scripts out of seventeen once used throughout the Philippines.
Where is it
Various locations, Mindoro province, Philippines; various locations, Palawan province, Philippines; National Museum, Manila, Philippines
Syllabaries are phonetic systems of writing in which symbols represent sets of consonants and vowels, so articulating sounds. The syllabaries of the Philippines were the ancient writing systems of the islands used before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.
The scripts reflect a long period of cultural and social interchange and relationships between peoples located as far apart as India and Southeast Asia, which were related to population movements across the Austronesian family of languages, especially the Malayo-Polynesian branch. In particular, the syllabary has been related to other Sanskrit-derived writing that has been traced to the syllabaries in Sulawesi and Java to the south of the Philippines.
The oldest of the sample paleographs is an inscription in copper plate that bears a date of 850 in the Saka or Indian calendar, equivalent to AD 928; this was discovered in southern Luzon. The script relates to an ancient Malay language although it is similar to other Indonesian paleographs. A second paleograph, dating from the 14th to the 15th centuries and inscribed on a piece of silver associated with Ming dynasty burials, was found in the island of Mindanao. A third from the same period was inscribed on the shoulder of an earthenware pot excavated in the Batangas province on the island of Luzon.
The scripts were also often written on bamboo and palm and banana leaves and were used particularly as a way of sending messages between isolated communities. They were also used in poetic forms, such as the ambahan and urukay poetry of the Hanunoo and Mindoro Buid respectively. Of the seventeen documented scripts that existed in the Philippines in the 16th century, only four remain in use to this day – those of the Tagbanua and Pala’wan people of Palawan island, and of the Hanunoo and Buid on Mindoro island.
The scripts are expressive of the distinct culture of the islands that is threatened with extinction in the drive for homogeneity and a common global culture expressed not only in the widespread adoption of the Western alphabet but also by modern technology, especially phones and text messaging.
The Hanunoo script is still in use and relative isolation from mainstream society keeps the Buid script alive; both are currently used in ambahan poetic works and songs. However, the Tagbanua and Pala’wan scripts are in decline and the National Museum