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Indian Epigraphy c10.s6: 6. Treatment of Letters

Indian Epigraphy c10.s6

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6. Treatment of Letters

c10.s6.1

The custom of wrapping up letters in cloth and of sealing the packet is referred to in the Jātakas.⁵ According to Bāṇa's Harṣacarita,⁶ the lekhahāraka or lekhahāra (i.e. letter-carrier) tied each packet separately to a strip of cloth and wound the cloth round his head. Ordinary letters written on palm leaf or birch bark were folded, the ends of the leaves or sheets being split and joined and the whole being tied up with a thread.⁷

c10.s6.2

⁵ Fausböll, Jātaka, Vol. II, p. 173 ff.

c10.s6.3

⁶ Nirnayasagar Press ed., pp. 58, 167. See also p. 66 above.

c10.s6.4

⁷ Cf. Buhler, Indian Palaeography, p. 100.

c10.s6.5

A number of royal seals, both metallic and earthen, belonging to kings, who had their capitals far away from Bihar, have been discovered at Nalanda in the Patna District of Bihar.¹ It appears that these seals accompanied the letters of the kings in question, which were addressed to the head of the Buddhist establishment at Nalanda. It also seems that the seals were either tied up with the letters or were carried by the letter-carriers separately in order to prove to the addressee the genuineness of the letter he received. A person carrying a verbal message also carried a seal or a ring bearing the name of the sender of the message, which had to be shown to the person to whom the message was to be delivered.² This sort of token was generally called *abhijñāna*. Some of the Nalanda seals are big and heavy and could not have been carried by the letter-carriers on their heads along with the letters, since they came from a great distance. These therefore should better be regarded as *abhijñānas* carried by the messengers separately.

c10.s6.6

¹ Cf. *Mem. ASI*, No. 66, pp. 64 ff.

c10.s6.7

² See *Rājatar.*, VI, verses 33-36.

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