Summary

Encounter after Millennia or The Story of the Bamiyan Manuscript (BMS) was initially conceived as an article acquainting scholars and the general public with a small parchment manuscript found in one of the caves of an old Buddhist cave temple behind the two colossal standing Buddhas, now destroyed, in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The article was intended to tell the fascinating and intriguing story of how I came into the possession of the pictures of the Manuscript, as well as, to pay tribute to Julian Sherrier, a specialist in Buddhist art (Gandharan), for his contribution to the evolution of the entire project. If not for his kindness and genuine desire to help, none of the three volumes of this set would have been possible. 
 
Having started out with only about 20-24 pages, I felt an urgent need to address innumerable problems the study of the Manuscript posed in the course of writing. I searched for answers, and the paper grew, and today the entire work is over 400 pages of text in three volumes and over 100 illustrations. The cardinal line uniting the volumes is the relationship between the Bamiyan Manuscript and the Kartvelian phenomena: a) the Kartuli Asomtavruli Alphabet, b) the Kartvelian languages, and c) culture.

Volume I is structured according to two major lines: a) the contents of the initial article, and b) the linguo-cultural and esoteric analysis of the two Kartuli Asomtavruli letter-signs found in the upper registers of the stone seal engravings attached to the parchment pages. The necessity to include this section into the work was conditioned by the need to explain my immediate interest and a positive evaluation of the Bamiyan Parchment when I first saw it at the British Museum.

Furthermore, due to the fact that both the BMS characters and the Kartuli letter-signs under study exhibit considerable graphic similarities with the first Phoenician alphabet, the two - Kartuli and Phoenician - are subjected to a complex comparative linguistic and cultural investigation. When required by the analysis, evidence from the Greek alphabet is also introduced.

As the work progressed, the Kartvelian letter-signs revealed contacts with even earlier writing systems, namely, with Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian pictographs which, in their turn, necessitated a further comparative linguistic and cultural study, too. Hence, Volume I can be of interest to paleographers, specialists in Oriental Studies (Semitists, Assyriologists, Sumerologists, Egyptologists) as well as to the general public.

Volume II discusses the manuscript proper. It focuses on the descriptive investigation of the Manuscript and attempts to provide an approximate decipherment of the MSS contents based on its extra-linguistic characteristics (area of discovery, historical background, writing material, and the seal engravings). The book attempts to solve such significant paleographic issues as the direction of writing, type of the writing system, as well as the determination of the ultimate number of characters, their graphics, and their classification. The descriptive study of the Manuscript and the applied script is accompanied by Addenda of summary tables both in hard copy and in digital format.

The digital format of the tables is mainly intended for scholarly use to enable researchers to work on the manuscript and save them the trouble of spending sleepless nights in searching for clues, sometimes seemingly very insignificant, but very helpful in making important decisions at the very initial stage of research. Nevertheless, anyone interested in obtaining the electronic copy or the CD of the Addenda will be provided by one upon request.

At this initial stage of the study of the Bamiyan Manuscript I fully realize that much more research is required until we can, if ever, say that we have solved the mysteries posed by the ancient scribe/s to the modern scholar. I am hopeful that future studies will further determine the graphic design of the characters and contribute to a more exact and clear classification of the graphs. A qualitative analysis aimed at identifying the phonetic value of the characters will give a true boost to a comprehensive understanding of this yet another unknown script. The study is already underway and any collaboration or help will be welcome.

Volume III started out as a comparative linguistic study of the names of Afghanistan and Dari, (one of the Afghan state languages) in an attempt to search for other possible contacts between Afghanistan and Georgia. Upon obtaining positive results, a further step was made towards a comparative linguistic analysis of Kartvelian and Persian language material in order to verify the results obtained through the study of the previous two volumes. Understandably, the underlying reason for the choice of ancient (frequently Median) Persian language evidence is due to Dari’s Persian origin. The study uncovers the Kartvelian etymology of about 50 proper names and items of general vocabulary.

Due to a significant role of the Kartvelian linguistic and cultural contacts with other civilizations, both dead (Volume 1) and living (Volume 3), continued research along these lines looks very promising. This makes me hopeful that future scholarly endeavors will throw more light on the mysteries of the Bamiyan Parchment.

It bears repetition that the presented study of the Bamiyan Manuscript (volume II) is just at its first stage of scholarly study and what has been done is just a more or less workable basis for future research. I hope the present work will ease the labors of those who will tackle the fascinating and highly challenging task of deciphering the Manuscript, and as mentioned above, I would welcome any step, and would cooperate gladly with anyone interested in pursuing their studies in the field.

I would like to express my hope that the manuscript could be still recovered, the money raised from selling the publication of the present work will go towards the search of the Manuscript and its purchase. Also, I would greatly appreciate any information about the whereabouts of the Parchment since the entire manuscript pictures are provided. The mistake made by the British Museum has to be corrected so that the Bamiyan Manuscript can take its rightful place among a number of items from our cultural past.  


March 15, 05.
Istanbul
Anna Meskhi