The Bower Manuscript is a collection of seven fragmentary Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit treatises found buried in a Buddhist memorial stupa near Kucha, northwestern China. Written in early Gupta script on birch bark, it is variously dated in 5th to early 6th century. The Bower manuscript includes the oldest dated fragments of an Indian medical text, the Navanitaka.
The Bower Manuscript
Image: 5th to 6th century Bower manuscript, Sanskrit, early Gupta script, Kucha Xinjiang China, Leaf 1
Image: 5th to 6th century Bower manuscript, Sanskrit, early Gupta script, Kucha Xinjiang China, Leaf 2
Image: 5th to 6th century Bower manuscript, Sanskrit, early Gupta script, Kucha Xinjiang China, Leaf 3
Birch bark manuscripts are documents written on pieces of the inner layer of birch bark, which was commonly used for writing before the mass production of paper. Evidence of birch bark for writing goes back many centuries and appears in various cultures. The oldest such manuscripts are the numerous Gandhāran Buddhist texts from approximately the 1st century CE, from what is now Afghanistan. They contain among the earliest known versions of significant Buddhist scriptures, including a Dhammapada, discourses of Buddha that include the Rhinoceros Sutra, Avadanas and Abhidharma texts.
A birch bark manuscript from Kashmir of the Rupavatara, a grammatical textbook based on the Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini (dated 1663)
Gandhara birchbark scroll fragments (c. 1st century)
Sarasvati in Walters museum holding a manuscript
A Kashmiri manuscript on birch bark (c. 17th century)
