Tocharian

Tocharian. The name for two related, but probably mutually unintelligible, Indo-European languages in which many Central Asian Buddhist texts from the Tarim Basin along the Silk Road were composed. The two languages are known as:

• Tocharian A (East Tocharian, or Turfanian) and
• Tocharian B (West Tocharian, or Kuchean).

The languages were written in a variant of the Brāhmī script. "Virtually all the extant Tocharian Buddhist manuscripts are translations of earlier Indian materials, many in bilingual editions that speeded the deciphering process."

The name Tocharian derives from the Greek term for the people of this region. Texts in Tocharian A have been discovered in the oasis petty-kingdom of Turfan and in the vicinity of Shorchuk/Yanqi. Tocharian B texts range much more widely across the Tarim Basin, but are especially prominent in the Kucha region.

The languages were unknown in the West until Aurel Stein discovered manuscripts written in these languages during his expeditions into the Tarim Basin.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University