27
Skjærvø, Prods Oktor
« An Account Tablet from Eighth-Century Khotan ». BAI 15, 2001 [2005], pp. 1-8.
Edition, translation, commentary and facsimiles of a new Khotanese wooden document concerning expenditure of grain and containing several previously unattested words. Skjærvø reads in ll. 2-4 the month names Rarūya, Haṃdyaja and Ttuṃjāra “although this would be the wrong order” (p. 1), Haṃdyaja and Rarūya being the first and second summer months respectively. I would suggest the following readings with a regular sequence of months: (2) [ra]rūyä māśtä ‘in the month of Rarūya’, (3) [ttuṃ]jārä māśtä ‘in the month of Ttuṃjāra’, and (4) [śi’ye] ttu[ṃ]jārä māśtä ‘in the second month of Ttuṃjāra’, i.e. an intercalary month of the lunisolar calendar (cf. e.g. Hedin 21.5 and 24.4). If l. 1 opened, as is likely, with [haṃd]y[a]j[ä] m[āś]t[ä] ‘in the month of Haṃdyaja’, then the account began with the first summer month. A few slips may be corrected: read a8 kūsa 4 kha 2 ‘4.2 kūsas’ for kūsa 5 kha 2 ‘5.2 kūsas’; a10 ‘in the month of Braṃkhaysja’ is omitted in the translation; read a13 nāte for nate; read b2 lāhurā for lāhurāṃj; in the translation read a13-14, b2, b7-9 ‘0.3 kūsa’ etc. instead of ‘3 kūsas’ etc., and b1 ‘0.5 kūsa’ instead of ‘5 kūsas’.

