Indian Epigraphy c10.s7.1

c10.s7.1

Manuscripts were preserved in a library called *Bhāratī-bhāṇḍāgāra* or *Sarasvatī-bhāṇḍāra* (literally, ‘the store-house of the goddess of learning’). Books written on palmyra leaves or on bark or paper sheets had wooden covers on the top and bottom and the whole was tied up with a string. Often this string passed through the leaves or sheets and sometimes also the covers through holes made in them and was wound round the cover and knotted. These practices are referred to by Al-Bīrunī³ and Bāṇa.⁴ In Nepal, the covers of important manuscripts were often made of embossed metal and manuscripts were wrapped up in dyed or embroidered cloth.⁵ In Jain libraries, palmyra-leaf manuscripts were often kept in small sacks of cloth, the sacks being preserved in small boxes of white metal. We have noticed above that, in Kashmir, manuscripts were sometimes bound in leather and kept on shelves in accordance with Muhammadan practice.