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Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8: Chapter V. The Writing Materials Used in India, and Especially in the South

Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8

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Chapter V. The Writing Materials Used in India, and Especially in the South

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I have already incidentally mentioned various substances used for writing on in S. India; for convenience' sake, it may be well to collect and complete that information here.

A. Books

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**1.** ***Bhūrja-bark*** appears to have been first used in India for this purpose, but only in the North¹. It is mentioned in the Amarakosha, and incidentally, in the Raghuvamça and similar poems².

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¹ See above p. 10.

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² Q. Curtius (viii., 9) mentions that at the time of Alexander's invasion the Indians wrote on bark, but others mention only cotton cloth or paper.

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The earliest real description of its use that I have met with is by Albirūni (about 1030 A. D.) who writes: “Dans les provinces du centre et du nord de l'Inde, on emploie l'écorce intérieure d'un arbe appelé *touz*. C'est avec l'écorce d'un arbre du même genre qu'on recouvre les arcs; celle-ci se nomme *bhoudj*. Cette écorce a une coudée de long, et elle a en largeur la longueur du doigt, ou un peu moins. Pour la rendre plus propre à faire du papier, on l'oint d'huile et on la polit; par là, on lui donne de la force et on la rend lisse. Ensuite, quand on veut fixer l'ordre des feuillets, on les pagine; puis on enveloppe le tout dans une étoffe, et on le place entre deux planches de la grandeur des feuillets. Des livres portent dans l'Inde le nom de *pouthi*. C'est sur la même écorce que les Indiens écrivent leurs lettres et qu'ils marquent tout ce qu'ils ont besoin de communiquer au loin”³. This bark is written on with the aid of a reed pen and ink of a kind which will be mentioned afterwards⁴. MSS. on this substance are unknown in S. India.

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³ Reinaud, ‘Mémoire’, pp. 305-6.

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⁴ The latest and most complete description of this material and the way it is used is to be found in the *Bombay Journal*, vol. xii. pp. 29 ffg.

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**2.** ***Palm-leaves*** of the *Borassus flabelliformis*, *Corypha umbraculifera* and *C. taliera*. These have always been, and still are, the chief material for books not only in S. India, Ceylon, Indo-China, the Malay¹ Archipelago and Burmah², but even in Bengal and other parts of N. India.

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¹ A Chinese writer (15th century A. D.) notices this fact. See "Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca" compiled from Chinese sources by W. P. Groeneveldt, p. 40. (Batavia, 1876.)

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² In Burmah the Corypha leaves are used for books only; the *Palmyra* for letters etc. Mason's "Burmah", p. 522.

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These leaves are used in two ways:

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*a)* The letters are scratched on them with a style, and the lines thus formed are afterwards made clear by being filled with some black matter—powdered charcoal or lamp-black—rubbed in with some juicy vegetable stalk such as that of the yam. This is the most general way of writing on these leaves.

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*b)* The leaves are written on with a pen, and both black and red ink. This way of writing seems peculiar to the N. of India and particularly to Cambay and Gujarat. I have met with some Jain MSS. written in this way in S. W. India, but they had been brought from the North.

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The use of palm-leaves, as material to write on, is certainly of considerable age in India, and from thence it spread to Ceylon and Indo-China³. This use was probably common from the period of the introduction of writing into Eastern and Southern India, but it is not possible to fix the exact date.

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³ The Palmyra (*Borassus*) seems to be indigenous in S. India or Ceylon. The Talipat seems to be indigenous in Ceylon only. The botanists appear not have considered the original home and diffusion of these useful palms.

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In the seventh century A. D. this material is repeatedly mentioned in the Life and Travels of Hiouen Thsang⁴. According to these authorities⁵ the collection of the three piṭaka made and circulated by Mahākāçyapa was written on tāla leaves, and at the time Hiouen Thsang visited India these leaves were in general use.

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⁴ "Pèlerins Bouddhistes", i. pp. 158 and 202; iii. p. 148.

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⁵ Fryer ("New Account", p. 33) and some others err in supposing that the leaves used for writing on are those of the cocoa-palm. In the Mahāvaṁso (ed. Turnour, p. 204) a fugitive king is said to have written a grant on a *Pandanus* leaf, as he could get nothing else.

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About 1030 A. D. Albīrūnī writes⁶: "Dans le midi de l'Inde, il y a un arbre qui ressemble au palmier et au cocotier; il produit un fruit bon à manger⁷, et des feuilles d'une coudée de long et de trois travers de doigt de large: on appelle ces feuilles *târy*⁸. C'est sur ces feuilles qu'on écrit; on pratique ensuite un trou au milieu, et l'on y fait passer une ficelle, qui retient les feuilles les unes contre les autres."

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⁶ Tr. by Reinaud, "Mémoire", p. 305.

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⁷ The palm referred to is for this reason the *Borassus flabelliformis*. Albīrūnī seems not to have known the *Corypha* or *Talipat*.

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⁸ *i. e. tāla.*

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The early European travellers in the East all mention palm-leaf books as being in general use in India⁹.

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⁹ See, *e. g.*, Barros, Decada, i., ix., 3 (f. 180 of vol. i. of the 2d. ed.).

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The oldest Indian mss. known at present are on palm-(talipat-)leaves, but with the writing in ink. One of these discovered by Profr. Bühler is *d. saṃv.* 1189 or A. D. 1132, and is the oldest Indian ms. known. It is a ms. of the Jain Āvaçyakasūtra[^1). About this there need be no doubt. The next which is dated 1151 or 1229 A. D. is so well preserved that it seems difficult to believe that it is not a copy of an older ms. with the date of the original left unchanged, as is often the case[^2). The oldest palm-leaf ms. that I know of the first class is of A. D. 1428 from which I have taken the alphabet in Pl. x. It is a Canarese ms.

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The meanness which is so characteristic of S. India, displays itself conspicuously in the mss. written there. It is very seldom that the least attempt is made (except in Malabar) to trim the leaves, and to provide proper covers for them. In Ceylon, Burmah and Indo-China, on the other hand, the palm-leaf mss. are always beautifully written, and are often real works of art. In S. India, mss. are hung up in the kitchen chimney; in the Ceylon monasteries I observed that each one of importance is preserved carefully in a box made for the purpose and to fit the ms.

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*3. Plates of Metal.* Books of this kind exist, though examples are very rare.

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The earliest mention of such occurs in the Life and Voyages of Hiouen Thsang. These state that Kanishka: “fit graver, sur des feuilles de cuivre rouge, les textes de ces Traités (Commentaries on the Tripiṭaka), les renferma dans une caisse en pierre soigneusement scellée et bâtit un *Stoûpa* pour l’y déposer”[^3). Such legends are not uncommon in all parts of India[^4), but instances of books written on plates of metal must always have been very uncommon, and it is only possible to refer to two or three examples at the present time.

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Some Telugu works written on copper plates existed some sixty years ago at Tripatty, and, perhaps, are still to be found. Campbell (in 1820) writes: “Having heard that a number of poems, engraved on some thousand sheets of copper, had been preserved by the pious care of a family of Brahmins in the temple on the sacred hill at Tripatty, I deputed a native for the purpose of examining them; but, with the exception of a

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[^1): “Report”, 1872-3. [^2): It belongs to the R. As. Society (No. 112 Sanskrit) and there is a splendid facsimile of a leaf in pl. i. of part i. of the Palæographic Society’s “Facsimiles of Ancient MSS. Oriental Series.” (1875.) [^3): “Pèlerins Bouddhistes” i., 96; ii., 178. A plate of silver with two words on it was found in the Manikyāla tope. Prinsep’s “Essays” by Thomas, i., p. 100 *note*, and pl. vi. [^4): A similar story is told about Sāyaṇa’s works (“Ṛigveda”, ed. Max Müller, vol. i., p. xvii.), but it rests on a ridiculous book (“Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets”, Calcutta, 1829—p. 45) which asserts: “Some of the author’s works were dug out of a pit, by the emissaries employed by the late Col. Mackenzie, to collect literary materials in the ceded districts in the year 1811. The characters in which these works were written, are mixed (! !) and obsolete.” This is pure invention!

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treatise on grammar, of which a copy was taken, the whole collection was found to contain nothing but voluminous hymns in praise of the deity"¹).

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¹ A. D. Campbell, "Telugu Grammar" (2nd. ed. of 1820), p. xiii.

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A small Pali MSS. of recent date written on silver plates is in the British Museum; it is from Ceylon.

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These are the only examples that I can refer to of books written on plates of metal.

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*4. Boards of wood etc.* In Burmah, Buddhist rituals are often written on slips of wood covered with gold or silver lacquer, the letters being black. Numerous examples of these splendid MSS. are to be seen in the British Museum and similar libraries in Europe. I have not met with the least trace of such in S. India, nor have I ever heard of any such practice in India.

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Some of the Indian law-books² mention a board as used by judges to reduce notes of pleadings into form; this must have been a kind of black board, but I have not seen anything of the kind in use. The Lalitavistara³ mentions sandalwood boards used in school like slates.

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² Kātyāyanasmṛiti (quoted by Mādhava): Pūrvapaxam svabhāvoktam prāḍvivāko ’bhilekhayet | Pāṇḍulekhena phalake, tataḥ pattram viçodhayet || This passage must be relatively modern. Writing is frequently mentioned in connection with judicial proceedings, but such a record as is here intended, can only have been used in modern times.

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³ See p. 121 of Profr. Foucaux's edition (Tibetan), Vol. ii.

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*5. Prepared cloth.* This is the earliest writing material in India so far as trustworthy historical information goes, for it is described by Nearchus⁴, who says that the Brahmans wrote: ἐν σινδόσι λίαν κεκροτημέναις. This is obviously the ‘paṭa’ or ‘kārpāsika paṭa’ of the Smṛitis and compilers of the Digests⁵, and must, therefore, have been in use down to comparatively recent times, but I have not met with a specimen of it, nor have I anywhere met with a description of this substance.

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⁴ "Reliqua Arriani et Scriptorum de rebus Alexandri", ed. Müller, p. 61.

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⁵ See below ch. vi.

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The form in which cloth is now used for writing on is of a different kind, it is that of ‘kaḍatam’ as it is termed in Canarese, and this is (so far as I am aware) used only by the Canarese of all the peoples of India, though the Siamese have precisely the same, and the Bataks of Sumatra use a kind of cloth which is folded in the same way though it differs from the Canarese and Siamese material in being light-coloured.

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The Canarese cover the cotton cloth with a paste made of mucilage (from tamarind or similar seeds) mixed with powdered charcoal, and when dry it is folded transversely, and written on with a steatite pencil or chalk, so that the letters are white on a black ground¹). Books of this kind are now seldom used except for merchants' accounts, and I have not met with any old specimens. The earliest reference² to this kind of books, is of about 1250 A. D.

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¹ See also my “Vaṃçabrāhmaṇa”, p. xxxvii.

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² Mr. Kittel has kindly given me this information.

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*6. Paper.* The use of paper in India seems to be subsequent to the 11th century A. D., but, up to quite recent times it was unknown in S. India, and is, even now, regarded by rigid Hindus as unclean. In all the dialects of India it is called by more or less corrupt forms of the name ‘kāgad’ by which it was known to the Arabs³, and its foreign origin is, thus, apparent.

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³ On p. 10 I termed kāgad an Arabic word, but it is not one *originally*. What its real origin is, I cannot find.

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According to Albīrūnī⁴ (and there is no reason to doubt his accuracy) paper was discovered by the Chinese at Samarcand, when Transoxiana was under their power, or in the earlier centuries A. D., and from Samarcand the manufacture gradually extended to other countries.

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⁴ Reinaud, ‘Mémoire’, p. 305. See also von Kremer's “Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen,” ii. pp. 306 ffg.

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The earliest Indian MS. on paper that has, as yet, been discovered is of 1310 A. D.⁵, but there are many others in existence of anything like this age, and most of the MSS. in existence are subsequent to 1500 A. D. The miserably destructive climate of India is quite sufficient to account for this seemingly strange circumstance.

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⁵ “Notices”, x. p. iii. (Report).

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The paper used in the South of India during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries came chiefly from Portugal, though, latterly, some was imported from China. English paper was but little used. The water-mark affords an easy means of detecting forgeries.

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Perhaps the first *exact* historical mention of books in India is that by the Chinese which records the importation of Buddhist books from India into China in 73 A. D. At the beginning of the 5th century A. D. we have Fa-hian's testimony that books were then rare, and he also tells us that he had to copy for himself what he wanted⁶. But two hundred and fifty years after this there was not so much difficulty; copyists were then to be found⁷ and Hiouen Thsang appears to have had little difficulty in collecting a considerable library. With the Buddhists and Jains it has always been esteemed a virtuous act to have sacred books copied in as elegant a way as possible, and to present them to monasteries⁸ or learned men, but though this practice is also mentioned by Hindus (*e. g.* Hemādri), the Brahmans do not seem to have taken to the notion, and their ᴍss. can at once be recognized by their miserable appearance. This is, no doubt, to be attributed to the peculiar reliance of the Brahmans on oral instruction only, in consequence of which books were rather endured as a necessity than held in esteem. This point of view is singularly displayed in Sanskrit literature; allusions to books are so rare that it would at first sight seem as if they were hardly in use even down to recent times, and it is remarkable that the works in which such allusions occur were all composed in N. India or Cashmere¹. The descriptions that one finds of the style and way of writing books which occur in some of the later Tantras and similar works all refer to N. India and Bengal, and not to S. India².

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⁶ Beal, “Buddhist Pilgrims,” pp. 142 etc.

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⁷ “Pèlerins Bouddhistes”, i., p. 264.

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⁸ Profr. Bühler (“Report on Sanskrit MSS. 1872-3”, pp. 1-2) mentions that: “A library at Ahmadabad contains .... four hundred copies of the Āvaçyakasūtra.”

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¹ *e. g.* Bṛihatkathā and Kathāsaritsāgara. On the silence of the earlier books see Max Müller’s “Ancient Sanskrit Literature” (2 ed.) pp. 497 ffg.

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² See *e. g.* the extract from the Nandipurāṇa in the vidyādāna section of Hemādri’s “Dānakhaṇḍa.”

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Notwithstanding their wretched appearance, books are looked on with great veneration in S. India as representatives of Sarasvatī, and are worshipped occasionally.

B. Letters

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For this purpose, bhūrja bark, palm-leaves, plates of metal, and (in later times) paper were mostly used. Of Hindu letters we now have apparently no specimens of more than one hundred years old, except perhaps among the Mahrāṭhas. Allusions to letters are frequent in the dramas and the earlier of the modern artificial poems, and some of such allusions go back at least 1200 years³.

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³ *e. g.* Vāsavadattā (ed. by Dr. F. E. Hall) p. 163—Sā ca kṛitapraṇāmā Makarandāya patrikām upānayat.

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There is also a “letter-writer” attributed to a Vararuci, one of a Vikramāditya’s “nine jewels” of course⁴; it is a small treatise, but shows that some attention was paid to the subject, and that, therefore, letters were in common use: it, however, refers to letters on paper or the like, whereas in S. India and Ceylon (except among foreigners) palm-leaves have always been used for this purpose up to recent times. For this purpose a strip of palm-leaf is cut in the usual form, and smeared with turmeric or some similar colour for ornament. The ends are split a little way to secure the whole which is folded in a ring, and then fastened by a thread. The earliest complete description of such a letter that I know of is of the middle of the 16th century in De Barros’ “Asia”; he says: “As outras cousas, que servē ao modo de nossas cartas mesiuas e escriptura comum, basta ser a folha escripta e enrolada em si e por chancella atase com qualquer linha, ou neruo da mesma palma”¹). The writing of letters is also often mentioned in the curious Tuḷu Sagas which refer to the Bhūta worship of Canara and the Koṅkan. Thus in the Saga of Kōṭi and Cannayya, after a clerk has been sent for on a certain occasion he is ordered to write a letter. “Another man was sent . . . to bring leaves of a young palm-tree. He had the leaves exposed to the morning sun, and taken up in the evening. By this time the clerk had come. . . He asked the Ballāḷ (chief) why he had been sent for. The Ballāḷ said: I want you now to write a letter. The clerk sat down on a three-legged stool. The Ballāḷ had the bundle of palm-leaves placed before him; he (the clerk) took out a leaf from the bundle, cut off both ends and laid aside the middle. He had oil and turmeric rubbed on it, and asked the chief what he should write”²).

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⁴ “Notices”, i., pp. 196-7. There is much in this tract that appears to be derived from Muhammadan custom, and not to be of Hindu origin.

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¹ “Asia”, Decada i.; Livro ix.; Cap. iii. (vol. i.; *folio* 180 *b*. of the second ed. 1628). The letter from the Zamorin to the king of Portugal which Vasco de Gama carried in 1498 was on an ōlai (Castanheda “Historia da India”, i. p. 81, ed. of 1833).

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² From a MS. collection of the Sagas (in Tuḷu) relating to the Bhūta worship which I had made for me during a residence of two years and a half in S. Canara.

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Strange as it may seem, letters were also written on substances which would seem totally unfit for this purpose. One of the Açoka inscriptions on a block of stone seems to be a letter from the king to the convocation of Buddhist priests³).

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³ Burnouf, “Le Lotus de la bonne Loi”, pp. 727-8. “Elle (l’inscription) est écrite, et très-soigneusement, sur un bloc détaché de granit qui n’est ni d’un volume ni d’un poids considérable, n’ayant que deux pieds Anglais sur deux de ses dimensions, et un pied et demi sur la troisième. Ce bloc . . . . peut être aisément transporté . . . . C’est une lettre.”

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Thin plates of metal were also used in the South, and several letters of this kind are mentioned by the early Portuguese writers. A letter on a plate of gold was sent by the king of Vijayanagara in 1514 to the Portuguese chief⁴). Other instances are mentioned, and the practice was evidently a common one, but specimens (for obvious reasons) do not seem to be in existence.

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⁴ Correa, “Lendas da India”, ii., part 1, p. 377.

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Hiouen Thsang⁵) mentions a letter which Tishyaraxitā (Açoka’s second wife) forged. It appears to have been sealed with red wax (!), and Açoka (it is said) used for a seal the impression of his own teeth. The substance, however, on which it was written is not mentioned, probably bhūrja bark was intended.

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⁵ “Pèlerins Bouddhistes”, ii., p. 156.

C. Grants and Public Documents

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*1. Stone.* This substance (though not referred to by the law-books) is the one on which not only the earliest proclamations existing in India were written, but which has been generally used down to the present time.

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For this purpose the naturally smooth surface of a rock or a boulder[^1), such as are found all over India, was used[^2), or a slab (much like an old-fashioned English tombstone) was prepared for the purpose. In earlier times, stone pillars were also used for engraving proclamations[^3). In S. India, the walls of temples, the pavement, and the pillars of the colonnades were chiefly used for recording grants. In Java slabs were in use much the same as in India[^4).

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In all instances known, the letters are incised, and, in some cases, appear to have been drilled. The stone used in S. India and Java is easily fractured and, being of coarse and unequal grain, soon perishes if exposed to the weather; thus the older inscriptions in both countries have suffered much, and are often legible with difficulty.

2. Metal Plates

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*a. Plates of copper* were early in use for recording grants etc. The law-books mention this material (‘tāmrapaṭa’) and the vast majority of S. Indian inscriptions are written on such plates. Fa-hian (about 400 A. D.) says: “From the time of Buddha’s Nirvāṇa, the kings and nobles of all those countries began to erect vihāras for the priesthood and to endow them with lands, gardens, houses, and also men and oxen to cultivate them. The records of these endowments, being engraved on sheets of copper, have been handed down from one king to another, so that no one has dared to deprive them of possession, and they continue to this day to enjoy their proper revenues[^5).” The early European travellers also noticed this usage[^6).

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There is a remarkable difference in the form of the plates used in N. and in S. India. In the North they are generally very nearly square and are much like the shape of a page of a modern book. The earlier S. Indian inscriptions are written on long strips, and the lines of writing are lengthwise. It is obvious that this difference in shape is to be attributed to the fact that the plates were fashioned like the leaves of books used in those respective countries. In the North the bhūrja was cut nearly square; in the S. the palm-leaves afforded strips only. But in the course of time the form of the plates

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[^1): These boulders are produced, geologists say, by exfoliation, and are not true *erratic* boulders. [^2): It is hardly necessary to mention the chief Açoka edicts which are of this kind. See also “Pèlerins Bouddhistes”, iii., 38 etc. [^3): Beal’s “Buddhist Pilgrims”, pp. 95, 108 and 109 (about 400 A. D.). Remarkable instances are still existing, (*e. g.* at Allahabad) on which are edicts of Açoka. For an engraving of the one at Allahabad see Prinsep’s “Essays” (by Thomas) i., p. 232 and also Fergusson’s “History of Indian and Eastern Architecture”, pp. 52 ffg. [^4): See *e. g.* the plate in vol. x. (129) of the Batavia “Verhandelingen” and the plates in Friederich’s “Over Inscriptiën van Java en Sumatra”. (Batavia, 1857.) [^5): Beal’s “Buddhist Pilgrims”, p. 55. [^6): Barros (in 1552) says: “As escripturas que elles querem que dure pera muitos seculos .... como letreiros de templos, doações de juro, que dão os Reys, estas são abertos em pedra ou cobre.” (Decada, i., liv, ix.; c. 3. fol. 180 *b.* of 2nd ed.)

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used in S. India was modified considerably. From the 6th to the 14th century the most usual shape is a rectangle, about twice as long as it is broad, and the plates, if more than one, are secured by a ring passed through a circular hole at the right side¹.

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¹ See plates xxiv. etc.

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The Vijayanagara dynasty introduced the N. Indian fashion, and this continued the custom with their successors. The plates are here written across the narrower part of the plate, and the tops are rounded and often ornamented².

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² See plate xxx.

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Documents of this kind are usually on three or more plates, the outer sides of the first and last being left blank; the object of this practice is evidently to preserve the writing from injury. The later grants are generally on a larger number of plates than the earlier, and of much heavier substance, owing (it seems) to the practice of cutting the letters much deeper than was done in earlier times. The earliest documents, being simple in style, could be written on three or four small plates with ease; by the 11th century, the forms had become so prolix that eight or nine large plates were necessary. By the end of the 17th century the forms used are much shorter, but the plates used are generally heavy and thick, and in shape like those used by the Vijayanagara dynasty. Some grants of the 17th century are on heavy plates of copper about a quarter of an inch thick, and evidently intended to represent stelæ³. Private documents of the 16th and 17th centuries are on plates much less carefully fashioned, and generally consist of a single square leaf, with a sort of handle on the left side.

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³ Three such are in the Dharmapura Maṭha.

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To assist in preserving the parts covered with writing, a practice of raising margins round the plates by beating up and then flattening the edges, was soon introduced. The earliest instances belong to the 9th or 10th century; in the 11th century this was always done, and the practice continued to the 17th century when the preparation of documents was generally rude and careless.

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The writing on metal plates is always incised in later times; most usually it is done with a kind of chisel, for the ‘graver’ seems unknown in India. On very thin plates it is scratched with a style. The earliest documents of this kind that have been discovered, viz., those found in the Buddhist topes, have the writing scratched on the plates or formed by a series of punctures⁴.

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⁴ Prinsep's "Essays" by Thomas, i. p. 163 *note.* pl. vi.

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There is a remarkable iron pillar at Delhi with an inscription on it⁵.

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⁵ See the picture on p. 507 of Fergusson's "History of Indian and Eastern Architecture" (1876).

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*b.* Plates of *gold*¹ and *silver* are mentioned as being used for writing grants etc. and specimens of the *last*, at all events, are in existence still[^2).

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¹ A treaty between the king of Ava and the Portuguese was written on a leaf or plate of gold enclosed in an ivory box. [^2): 2) *a.* A recent grant on a plate of silver which was executed at Cochin. I saw it some years ago in the office of the Collector of Malabar. *b.* A grant on a single plate of silver and written in Telugu, by which the last Nāyak of Tanjore (Vijayarāghava) conveyed Negapatam to the Dutch. *c.* A similar grant (in Tamiḷ) by which the Mahrāṭha prince Ekoji confirmed the last in 1676. Both these are in the Museum at Batavia. [^3): 3) See below, ch. vi. [^4): 4) This is improved on the Bṛihatkathā which has: “Çrutvā guṇāḍhyakathitaṃ kāṇabhūtir uvāca tam | çoṇitena likha xipram saptānām cakravartinām || kathām vidyādharendrāṇām kathayāmi sthiro bhava! || [^5): 5) Dr. Hincks pointed out that one Sanskrit word for ink ‘melā’ is the Greek μέλας ‘kalama’=pen is calamus. “The words for ink and pen have all a modern appearance.” Max Müller, “Anc. Sans. Literature”, (2nd. ed.) p. 514.

c8.s3.t1.17

*c. Cotton cloth.* This is mentioned in the law-books[^3), but I do not know of any specimen.

c8.s3.t1.18

*d. Palm-leaves,* or *olais* were also used for this purpose. Some of the Tamiḷ grants of the 11th century state that they are according to ōlai grants by the king. I have not met with any examples of public documents of this kind. Private sale-deeds written on ōlais are common enough, but, naturally, they are always of recent date.

Ink, Pens etc.

c8.s4.1

Ink (mashī or masī) has been introduced into S. India in quite recent times and apparently by the Mahrāṭhas. It is (I am informed) made of lac, and is almost indelible; water and damp have no effect on it. In the N. of India and Cashmere a similar indelible ink is used for writing on the bhūrjapatra. Dr. Bühler has found out that this is composed of charcoal made from almonds boiled in cow's urine.

c8.s4.2

Ink is occasionally mentioned in Sanskrit books, but only in the more modern, *e. g.* the Kathāsaritsāgara (i. 8, 3): “Tām (kathām) ātmaçoṇitaiḥ | aṭavyām mashyabhāvāc ca lilekha sa mahākaviḥ[^4).” This idea of writing with blood occurs elsewhere (with similar absurdities) in Indian books. Here (like the original compositions of the tales in the Paiçāca language) it is a transparent fiction of the author to account for the apparent incompleteness of his work. The Mahāvaṃso mentions hiṅgula or vermilion as used for ink.

c8.s4.3

The pen used in S. India for writing Nāgarī on paper is made of the common reed[^5).

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