Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c8.s1.t3.7

c8.s1.t3.7

In connection with the introduction of paper in India, it is interesting to note a reference in the *Fan yu tsa ming*, a Sanskrit-Chinese lexicon of the 8th century. Here, the Sanskrit equivalent of the Chinese *tche*, meaning paper, is *Kakari*, a word unknown to Sanskrit literature in India, though *kāgar*, in the sense of feathers, is used in certain dialects of Hindi. The word recurs in Yi-tsing's *Fan yu tsien tseu wen* (No. 233) under the form *kākali*. These words could be compared with the Persian *kaghad*, ancient Uigür *kāgdā*, and Mongol *Qaghudasum*. As is already known, paper-manufacture was started in China. It is also a fact that in the Sasanide Iran, paper was regarded as a precious commodity and was employed in writing royal mandates. It is, however, interesting to note that, though paper was introduced in India, in the 12th century¹⁰, it had entered the Sanskrit vocabulary of extra Indian origin in the 8th century. It proves that Sanskrit knowing Indian colonists in Central Asia knew the use of paper long before it came to the mother country. The different forms of the word for paper in modern Indian dialects, Hindi Kāgad, Urdu Kāgaz, Kashmiri kākaz, have, however, been derived from the Persian Kāghad and not from kākali—kakari.¹¹