Bower manuscript is a collection of several texts, including an ancient Indian medical treatise dated to about 500 CE. It was written in the Sanskrit language (shlokas), in early Gupta script (late Brahmi script), by more than one person. It includes the Navanitaka compendium likely written by a Buddhist, who invokes the Buddha and then credits the excellent "maha-rishis" (great sages) of more ancient times. It also includes another text that invokes Shiva and other Hindu deities and sages.

It was discovered in arid Kucha, Xinjiang China near one of the looted ruins of Buddhist monasteries, inside a stupa. The manuscript was bought by Bower, and studied by Rudolf Hoernle.

This is a photo of a 2-D artwork created in 5th– or early 6th–century CE. The manuscripts were unearthed in the 19th-century and some of its photographs published in 1890 by Col. Waterhouse and in 1891 by A.F. Rudolf Hoernle in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1890 and 1891. This is c. 1,500-year-old 2-D Art. Therefore Wikimedia Commons PD-Art licensing guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer is herewith donated to wikimedia commons under CC 4.0 license.