Sir Aurel Stein(1862/11/26 - 1943/10/26)
Sir Aurel Stein, (born Nov. 26, 1862, Budapest, Hung.—died Oct. 26, 1943, Kabul, Afg.), Hungarian–British archaeologist and geographer whose travels and research in central Asia, particularly in Chinese Turkistan, revealed much about its strategic role in history.
Principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, Punjab, India (now in Pakistan; 1888–99), in 1892 he published his Sanskrit edition of the only known surviving ancient Indian historical work, the 12th-century Rājataraṅgiṇī by Kalhaṇa. His English translation, A Chronicle of the Kings of Kaśmīr, followed in 1900.
In that year he began the first of his central Asian expeditions, traveling through westernmost China to Khotan. In the course of this and three other expeditions (1906–08, 1913–16, and 1930), he traced the ancient caravan routes between China and the West, made valuable geographical observations on little-known regions, and collected many documents and artifacts, from Neolithic stone tools to 8th-century-AD grave findings and textiles. Near Tun-huang he discovered the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas, unknown outside China, which, with its extraordinary assemblage of paintings, temple banners, and documents, had been walled up since the 11th century. Many of the treasures he found are in the Asian Antiquities Museum, New Delhi. The results of his work of this period were published in Ancient Khotan, 2 vol. (1907), Serindia, 5 vol. (1921), and Innermost Asia, 4 vol. (1928).
Superintendent of the Indian Archaeological Survey (1910–29), Stein was also interested in Greco-Buddhist remains and in tracing Alexander the Great’s eastern campaigns. In 1926, at Pīr Sarāi, near the Indus River, he identified the site of Alexander’s storming of the nearly impregnable Rock of Aornos. Other studies by Stein added to the precise knowledge of Alexander’s movements in Asia. In an effort to elucidate the relationship between Mesopotamian and Indus civilizations, Stein investigated ancient mounds in Iran and Baluchistan. He also carried out an aerial photographic reconnaissance of the Roman frontiers in Iraq. Near his 81st birthday, his long-standing wish to explore in Afghanistan was granted, but he died there before he could commence his work. A British subject from 1904, he was knighted in 1912. (Source Accessed June 19, 2020)
Principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, Punjab, India (now in Pakistan; 1888–99), in 1892 he published his Sanskrit edition of the only known surviving ancient Indian historical work, the 12th-century Rājataraṅgiṇī by Kalhaṇa. His English translation, A Chronicle of the Kings of Kaśmīr, followed in 1900.
In that year he began the first of his central Asian expeditions, traveling through westernmost China to Khotan. In the course of this and three other expeditions (1906–08, 1913–16, and 1930), he traced the ancient caravan routes between China and the West, made valuable geographical observations on little-known regions, and collected many documents and artifacts, from Neolithic stone tools to 8th-century-AD grave findings and textiles. Near Tun-huang he discovered the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas, unknown outside China, which, with its extraordinary assemblage of paintings, temple banners, and documents, had been walled up since the 11th century. Many of the treasures he found are in the Asian Antiquities Museum, New Delhi. The results of his work of this period were published in Ancient Khotan, 2 vol. (1907), Serindia, 5 vol. (1921), and Innermost Asia, 4 vol. (1928).
Superintendent of the Indian Archaeological Survey (1910–29), Stein was also interested in Greco-Buddhist remains and in tracing Alexander the Great’s eastern campaigns. In 1926, at Pīr Sarāi, near the Indus River, he identified the site of Alexander’s storming of the nearly impregnable Rock of Aornos. Other studies by Stein added to the precise knowledge of Alexander’s movements in Asia. In an effort to elucidate the relationship between Mesopotamian and Indus civilizations, Stein investigated ancient mounds in Iran and Baluchistan. He also carried out an aerial photographic reconnaissance of the Roman frontiers in Iraq. Near his 81st birthday, his long-standing wish to explore in Afghanistan was granted, but he died there before he could commence his work. A British subject from 1904, he was knighted in 1912. (Source Accessed June 19, 2020)
Library Items
Appendix F: Inventory List of Manuscripts in Sanskrit, Khotanese, and Kuchean
The following preface was added by Aurel Stein to Appendix F, which was prepared for this publication by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle:
[NOTE. The materials embodied in this list were received in a final form from Dr. Hoernle. early in 1918. The typed press copy prepared from them was after his death in November of that year checked with the original under the kind supervision of Dr. F. W. Thomas.
Owing to various reasons difficulty was experienced about verifying the exact reading of all extracts quoted by Dr. Hoernle from particular MSS., mainly in Khotanese language. It being thus impossible to assure in this respect the degree of accuracy which that most painstaking collaborator would have aimed at, I have thought it advisable to reduce the reproduction of such quotations within narrow limits. For convenient reference by future students the original Inventory ' slips' as received from Dr. Hoernle's hand, as well as a typed copy of them, have been deposited at the India Office Library.—A. STEIN.]
Stein, Aurel. "Appendix F: Inventory List of Manuscripts in Sanskrit, Khotanese, and Kuchean". Prepared by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle. In Serindia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. Vol. 3, Text, 1432–59. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921. http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-5-B2-9/V-3/page/0402.html.en
Stein, Aurel. "Appendix F: Inventory List of Manuscripts in Sanskrit, Khotanese, and Kuchean". Prepared by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle. In Serindia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. Vol. 3, Text, 1432–59. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921. http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-5-B2-9/V-3/page/0402.html.en;Appendix F: Inventory List of Manuscripts in Sanskrit, Khotanese, and Kuchean;Textual study;Rudolf Hoernle; Sir Aurel Stein
On the topic of this person
Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts, Vol. 5
The vast expansion of Indian culture by Buddhists who penetrated through Bactria into the region of modern Kashghar, Yarkand, Khotan, Maralbashi, Kucha and Loulan has been disclosed by the results of expeditions sent out in the first decade of this century. Among the numerous documents was a considerable number written in Ancient Khotan, but in a dialect of the Śakas, or Indo-Scythians, who from the first century BC to the third century AD were dominant in North-western India. Volume I of Khotanese Texts was published in 1946, Volume II in 1954 and Volume III, which completed the publication of the longer texts in 1956. Volume IV containing the Śaka Texts from the Hedin Collection appeared in 1961. The fifth volume completed the printing of the texts. When it was published in 1963, it contained a large number of fragments and other pieces published for the first time, as well as the Hoernle Collection, the Samguata-Sutra folios and the Karma Text. (Source: Cambridge University Press)
Bailey, Harold W. Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts. Vol. 5. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
Bailey, Harold W. Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts. Vol. 5. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1963.;Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts, Vol. 5;Textual study;History;Hoernle, A.;Uttaratantra;Stein, A.;Harold Walter Bailey; Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts, Vol. 5.
