MS Sansk. e. 23 (P)

Summary of Contents: The so-called Weber manuscript consists of fragments containing eight different works (an astronomical text, various Buddhist works, a hymn in honour of Pārvatī, a vocabulary, a medical text) and some unidentified texts. They are written in early Gupta and Brāhmī script and paleographically date between the fifth and seventh centuries. They are one of the earliest specimens of Sanskrit manuscripts written on paper. The fragments were recovered from a stūpa or vihāra near Kucha in modern-day China and then came into the hands of the Moravian missionary Weber, F.F. Weber, then residing at Leh in Ladakh, who sold them to Hoernle, August Friedrich RudolfA.F.R. Hoernle.