The manuscript T III S 16: its importance for the history of Khotanese literature

T III S 16 is a complete folio that contains vv. 9-16 of chap. 13 of The book of Zambasta (= Z), an Old Khotanese poem on Mahayana Buddhism commonly believed to have been composed not earlier than the seventh century. The very existence of T III S 16 shows that this is not the case, since this folio should be dated to the fifth or early sixth century on account of the Early Turkestan Brahmi type b used in it. Thus, Z is contemporary with, or even precedes, the oldest known Khotanese translations of Buddhist sūtras. An early composition date for Z is also suggested by the following: the text contains wrong spellings of Indian names best explained by postulating sources in Kharoṣṭhī script; the peculiar layout of the Z manuscripts in four columns recalls the arrangement of the Khotan manuscript of the Gāndhārī Dharmapada in Kharoṣṭhī script (1st-3rd century?); as an early indigenous Buddhist work, Z betrays composition techniques of Iranian descent such as its concentric structure (cf. the Avestan Yasna).