Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c11.s1.t2: B. — Cotton cloth
Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c11.s1.t2
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B. — Cotton cloth
c11.s1.t2.1
The use of well-beaten cotton cloth is mentioned by Nearchos (see above, page 6), and some metrical Smṛtis, as well as some inscriptions of the Andhra period, state that official and private documents were written on *paṭa*, *paṭikā* or *kārpāsika paṭa*.⁴ According to Burnell, and Rice (Mysore and Coorg Gazetteer, 1877, 1, 408), the Kanarese traders still use for their books of business a kind of cloth, called *kaḍatam*, which is covered with a paste of tamarind-seed and afterwards blackened with charcoal. The letters are written with chalk or steatite pencils, and the writing is white or black. In the Bṛhajjñānakoṣa at Jesalmīr, I found a silk band with the list of the Jaina Sūtras, written with ink. Recently Peterson (Fifth Report, 113) has discovered at Aṇhilvād Pāṭaṇ a MS., dated Vikrama-Saṁvat 1418 (A. D. 1361-62), which is written on cloth.
c11.s1.t2.2
⁴ J. Jolly, Recht und Sitte, Grundriss, II, 8, 114; Nāsik inscription No. 11, A, B, in B.ASRWI. 4, 104 f.
Cites (1)
- Nasik No. 16 — Prakrit