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The '''Weber Manuscript''', also called '''Weber Manuscripts''', is a collection of nine, possibly eleven, incomplete ancient Indian treatises written mostly in classical [[Sanskrit]] that were found buried within a Buddhist monument in northwestern [[China]] in late 19th-century.<ref name=hoernle2/><ref name="Vogel1979p309"/> It is named after the Moravian missionary F. Weber who acquired the set from an Afghani merchant in [[Ladakh]], and then forwarded it to the German Indologist and philologist [[Rudolf Hoernlé]] in [[Calcutta]]. The manuscripts consist of 76 page-leaves, written in Northwestern [[Gupta script|Gupta]] and Central Asian Nagari (Turkestanic [[Brahmi script|Brahmi]], slanting Gupta) scripts.<ref name=hoernle2/> They were copied before the end of 7th-century, likely in the 5th-century<ref name=afrh1>{{cite book|author=A.F. Rudolf Hoernle|title=A Note on the British Collection of Central Asian Antiquities (Indian Antiquary, Volume 29)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DNCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA63 |year=1900|publisher=Archaeological Society of India|pages=63–70}}</ref> or the 6th–century.<ref name=hoernle2>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=1–40|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gB1CAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA1 }};<br>{{cite book|author=A. F. Rudolf Hoernle|title=Three further collections of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia (JASB, Vol LXVI, Part 1, Number 4)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_IooAAAAYAAJ|publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1897}}</ref> The original texts that were copied to produce these manuscripts were likely considerably older Indian texts, at least one between 3rd-century BCE and pre-2nd-century CE.<ref name=hoernle2/> The Weber Manuscript is notable for having been written on two types of paper – Central Asian and Nepalese, attesting to the spread of paper technology outside of interior China and its use for Indian [[religious text]]s by the 5th– or 6th-century.<ref name=afrh1/><ref name=rhragpaper/><ref name="Trier1972"/>

{{multiple image
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| image1=5th or 6th century Weber Manuscript 1, Nepalese Paper, early NW Gupta script, Sanskrit.jpg
| image2=5th or 6th century Weber Manuscript 5, Central Asian Paper, Central Asian Nagari (Turkestani Brahmi), Sanskrit.jpg
| footer = The Weber manuscripts (above) were, like the Bower manuscript, discovered near [[Kucha]] (Xinjiang China). Hoernle noted that these were a collection of 9 Sanskrit manuscript fragments on paper produced in 5th- to 6th-century CE in different parts of Asia.<ref name=rhragpaper>{{cite journal | last=Rudolf Hoernle | first=A. F. | title=Who was the Inventor of Rag-paper? | journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=35 | issue=4 | year=1903 | doi=10.1017/s0035869x00031075 | pages=663–684| url=https://zenodo.org/record/2023949 }}</ref><ref name="Vogel1979p309"/><ref name="Trier1972">{{cite book|author=Jesper Trier|title=Ancient Paper of Nepal: Results of Ethno-technological Field Work on Its Manufacture, Uses and History - with Technical Analyses of Bast, Paper and Manuscripts |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NSwPAQAAIAAJ|year=1972|publisher=Royal Library|isbn=978-87-00-49551-7|pages=93–94, 130–135}}</ref>
}}
The Weber Manuscripts include fragments of:<ref name=hoernle2/>
* a manuscript of a Sanskrit dictionary (''kosha''),<ref name="Vogel1979p309"/>
* an astronomical treatise based on the movement of the moon with [[Vedas|Vedic]] terms and 28 ''nakshatras'' (lunar zodiacs),<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/9 9]–17|url= https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* a goddess [[Parvati]] stotra with [[Rudra]] and [[Shiva]]–related Hindu mythology treatise in the style of [[Puranas]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/17 17]–21|url= https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* an eulogistic text on Vedic ''rishi'' [[Angiras (sage)|Angirasa]] but with some Buddhistic terms,<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/21 21]–24|url=https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* a Buddhist [[dharani]] and sorcery treatise in a "barbarous mixture of Pali and Sanskrit" according to Hoernle,<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/21 21]–22 |url=https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* a Buddhist treatise on snake charm (dharani) that praises the Buddha and claims the charm was taught by the Buddha to Mahayaksha Manibhadra, includes a list of names of some ''Nagas'' (snakes)<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/31 31]–32|url=https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* another Buddhist treatise on snake charm (dharani) quite similar to the previous treatise in content, also includes a list of names of some ''Nagas''<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/24 24]–26|url=https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* a treatise for treating some disease by fasting, penance, then preparing and taking a prescription, includes medical charms<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/32 32]–34|url=https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>
* an unclear text in a different language but with Sanskrit words, possibly a Buddhist tantric work<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Weber MSS – Another collection of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia| journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1893|number=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b30095712/page/34 34]–40|url=https://archive.org/details/b30095712 }}</ref>

The scribes were likely Buddhist because the Weber Manuscript was discovered in the ruins of a Buddhist monastery, the treatises include verses that praise the Buddha though the predominant language isn't Pali, is either mostly accurate classical Sanskrit or occasionally a crude mix of Pali and Sanskrit. Even the Sanskrit dictionary includes a phrase ''ksatriyair Buddha-nirjitaih'', or "Kshatriyas conquered by Buddha", which suggests that the author was probably Buddhist.<ref name=hoernle2/><ref name="Vogel1979p309"/>

The Weber Manuscripts are currently preserved in the collections of the [[Bodleian Library]] in Oxford.<ref name="Vogel1979p309">{{cite book|author=Claus Vogel|title=A History of Indian Literature|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hKziSs8Qy44C&pg=PA309 |year=1979|publisher =Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-02010-7|pages=309 with footnote}}</ref>

==Discovery==
[[Image:Location of Kuchar within Xinjiang (China).png|thumb|240px|The Weber Manuscript was found in Kucha, China (red dot above), the same location as the Bower Manuscript.<ref name=afrh1/>]]
Hoernle received the Weber Manuscript from Leh-based F. Weber in 1893. At that time, based on what he was told, he reported that the manuscript was discovered 60 miles south of [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]].<ref name=hoernle2/> However, interviews and surveys conducted between 1893 and 1900, persuaded Hoernle that the Weber Manuscript came from [[Kucha]], the same location as the [[Bower Manuscript]]. These were found by the same Muslim treasure hunters who were digging up Kucha area Buddhist ruins in late 19th-century.<ref name=afrh1/> These manuscript bundles were likely opened by the treasure hunters, carelessly examined, got jumbled as they put them back into separate parts to sell. They sought different buyers for each part. Two of the parts were bought in India and another by a buyer from Russia.<ref name=afrh1/> The India-based buyers forwarded them to Rudolf Hoernle, and these came to be called the Weber Manuscript and McCartney Manuscript. The Russian portion came to be called the Petrovski Manuscript and became a part of the Sanskrit manuscripts collection in [[Saint Petersburg]]. Some of the folio leaves of these various manuscripts are of the same treatise.<ref name=afrh1/> The Petrovski Manuscript – also referred to as Petrovsky Manuscript, St Petersburg Asiatic Museum catalog number SI P/33 – was studied by the Indologist [[Sergey Oldenburg]] in the 1890s and thereafter. He identified some parts as portions of some [[sutra]] and the start of the appendix. These were established by Fukita Takamichi in 1989 as parts of ''Nidanasutra'' and ''Nagaropomasutra'' ([[dharani]]).<ref>{{cite journal|title = Sanskrit Manuscripts from the N.F. Petrovsky Collection in the St Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies|author= M. I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya| journal= Manuscripta Orientalia| volume=5| number=4| year=1999|pages= 38, context: 36–39}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Industrial history|Paper]]
[[Category:History of technology|Paper]]
[[Category:Buddhist manuscripts]]
[[Category:Sanskrit literature]]
[[Category:Indian religious texts]]
[[Category:Indian manuscripts]]

Weber Manuscript - Revision history

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