This Buddhist manuscript dates from the seventh or eighth century and is written in Northern Turkestan Brāhmī cursive script. While the majority of Tocharian manuscripts come from the Northern Silk Route, this one was one was found far away at Endere on the Southern Route in the hall of the main temple, deposited as a votive offering before the central pedestal. Tocharian, like Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages, is Indo-European but forms a separate branch from them. For example, words like ‘kant’ ('hundred') agree with Latin ‘centum’ rather than Iranian ‘satem’.
Ink on paper
The British Library,
Or.8212/163 (E.i.6)