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Indian Epigraphy c9: Chapter III. Writing Materials

Indian Epigraphy c9

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Chapter III. Writing Materials

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MATERIALS FOR WRITING OR SCRATCHING

1. Palmyra Leaves

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Palmyra¹ leaves, separated from the lengthwise joint in the middle and cut at both ends according to the required size,² were used for writing letters as well as manuscripts of literary works in Sanskrit and other languages.³ That sometimes royal charters written on palmyra leaves were issued to the donees is clearly established by the Kurud plates⁴ of the 6th century. The originals of some of the documents later copied on copper plates or stone must have been written on palmyra leaves.

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¹ This is *tāla* (*tāḍa*) and *tālī* (*tāḍī*) respectively called *Borassus flabel liformis* and *Coryfa umbraculifera* (or *taliera*). Rājaśekhara’s *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā* (G.O.S. ed., p. 50) suggests that *tāḍi-patra* and birch-bark was used for writing with pen and ink while the *loha-kaṇṭaka* or iron needle was used to write on *tāla-dala*.

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² The size of the leaves in manuscripts varies between one and three feet in length and between one and a quarter and four inches in breadth.

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³ In the 11th century Al-Bīrūnī said, “The Hindus have in the south of their country a slender tree like the date and coconut palms, bearing edible fruits and leaves of the length of one yard and as broad as three fingers one put beside the other. They call these leaves *tārī* (Sanskrit *tālī* or *tāḍī*) and write on them” (Sachau, *Alberuni’s India*, Part I, p. 171).

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⁴ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, pp. 263 ff., pp. 267-68.

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For writing manuscripts of important works, the leaves were seasoned in the following way. They were at first dried, then soaked or boiled in water for a considerable time and again dried. Both sides of the leaves were then rubbed with conch- or cowrie-shells or a smooth piece of stone. Excluding certain parts of the Punjab-Kashmir region, palmyra leaves were in general use throughout India.

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In North India, the general practice was to write on the leaves with pen and ink, while, in the South, the letters were incised on the leaves with a sharp-pointed needle and were made black by besmearing ink on the writing.

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The leaves for writing a particular book were cut to the same length and a wooden plate each was placed at the top and the bottom of the leaves arranged according to order. A hole was made about the middle of the leaves of a manuscript (and sometimes also of the covers) for a string to pass through. The string was meant for binding the material about the middle of the packet and it string prevented the leaves from moving away from their proper places.¹ Sometimes, manuscripts of several books were preserved together in the same way. When the leaves of the manuscripts were considerably long in size, two holes were made instead of one, one of them about the middle of the left half and another about the middle of the right half. The availability of paper as a cheap writing material gradually pushed palmyra leaves out of use. Early Buddhist literature refers to *panna* or *parna* (i.e. leaf) as a popular writing material.² The reference is no doubt to palmyra leaves.

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¹ Al-Bīrūnī says, "They (i.e. the Indians) bind a book of these (i.e. palmyra) leaves together by a cord on which they are arranged, the cord going through all the leaves by a hole in the middle of each......... They write the title of the book at the end of it and not at the beginning" (Sachau, loc. cit. and p. 182). The string holding the leaves of a manuscript together was called *sūtra* or *śarayantraka* (cf. *Vāsavadatta*, Hall's ed., p. 250).

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² Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 94.

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In the 7th century, the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-tsang spoke of the general use of palmyra leaf as a writing meaterial throughout the country.³ The popularity of this material is also indicated by the fact that the birch-bark sheets of the Bower manuscripts as well as such early copper plates as the Taxila plate⁴ of Patika (21 A.D.) are cut according to the shape of a palmyra-leaf sheet. According to a Buddhist tradition, the canon was written on palmyra leaves immediately after the Buddha's death.⁵

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³ Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, Vol. II, p. 225.

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⁴ See *CII*, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 23 ff., Plate V, 1. The size of the plate is 14 inches by 3 inches and it weighs 3½ ounces. See also the Kalwan copper plate measuring 8.85 inches by 2.65 inches and weighing 879 grains (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXI, pp. 251 ff.).

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⁵ Beal, *Life of Hiuen Tsiang*, p. 117. Cf. also the story regarding Saṅghabhadra's 'dotted manuscript of the Vinaya' (*JRAS*, 1896, pp. 436 f.).

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Some of the earliest palmyra-leaf manuscripts have been discovered outside India. A few works copied on palmyra leaves in the early centuries of the Christian era were discovered in Central Asia,¹ while the Horiuzi (Japan) manuscript of the Buddhist work entitled Uṣṇīṣavijayadhāraṇī is believed to have been written in India in the 6th century A.D.²

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¹ JASB, Vol. LXVI, p. 218, Plate VII, 1, etc. For palm-leaf manuscripts from Turfan, which contain parts of Aśvaghoṣa's Sanskrit drama entitled Sāriputraprakaraṇa, see N. P. Chakravarti, India and Central Asia, p. 31. As regards various other manuscripts from Central Asia, see ibid., pp. 35ff. for the manuscript of the Sanskrit Udānavarga, pp. 39 ff. for that of Kumāralāta's Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā, and pp. 41 ff. for the Bower manuscripts.

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² Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series, Vol. I, Part iii, Plates I-IV.

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Among the early palm-leaf manuscripts found in Nepal, mention may be made of the Skanda Purāṇa (supposed to have been copied about the 7th century A. D.), the Parameśvara Tantra copied in the year 252 (probably of the Harṣa era and corresponding to 859 A.D.) and the Laṅkāvatāra copied in the Newari year 28 (906-07 A.D.).³ Manuscripts of the 11th and later centuries on palmyra leaves have been discovered in numbers in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Nepal and other regions, while those written in the South Indian style with sharp-pointed needle are generally not earlier than the 15th century. The hot climate of the South is likely to have led to the destruction of earlier manuscripts on palmyra leaves.

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³ H. P. Sastri, Catalogue of Palm-Leaf and Selected Paper Mss., I, Introduction, p. 52, p. 140, and Plate. For the Kiraṇatantra copied in 924 A.D., see Vol. II, p. 99. See also Mem. ASB, Vol. V, Plates XXXVI ff.

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Even about the beginning of the present century, in the rural areas of some parts of India, e. g. Bengal, small boys in the primary schools used to practise their knowledge of the alphabet on palmyra or plantain leaves.

2. Birch and Aloe Bark

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Sanskrit bhūrja-patra (literally, ‘the birch leaf’) is in reality a sheet of the required size cut out of the inner bark of the Bhūrja or birch tree grown in the Himalayas. In the 11th century, Al-Bīrūnī said, “In Central and Northern India, people use the bark of the tūz tree, one kind of which is used as a cover for bows. It is called *bhūrja*. They take a piece one yard long and as broad as the outstretched fingers of the hand, or somewhat less, and prepare it in various ways. They oil and polish it so as to make it hard and smooth, and then they write on it.........Their letters and whatever else they have to write they write on the bark of the *tūz* tree.”¹

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¹ Sachau, *Alberuni’s India*, Part I, p. 171.

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Q. Curtius seems to refer to the Indian practice of writing on birch bark when he says that, at the time of Alexander’s invasion, the Indians used the tender bark of tree for writing.² A synonym of *bhūrja* is *lekhana*, i.e. ‘writing’ or ‘a written document’, while it is also recognised in the sense of other words meaning ‘a written document’. The use of birch bark is supposed to have started in the north-west, although copper plates of the central, eastern and western regions of India, cut to the shape of birch-bark sheets, suggests the spread of the custom in early times. In North India, letters were generally written on birch-bark sheets.

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² Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 6.

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As in the palmyra-leaf manuscripts, the sheets in the manuscripts written on birch bark also had a hole or two for a string or two to pass through. Generally, space was left, while writing on the sheets in ink, for the perforation to be made afterwards. Some Kashmiri manuscripts written on birch-bark sheets during the Mughal age were bound with leather like the contemporary Arabic and Persian manuscripts. The introduction of cheap paper led to the disappearance of birch bark as a writing material, though it is still used in some areas for writing spells for insertion in talismans.

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Among the earliest birch-bark manuscript so far discovered, we may count the Khotan copy of the Prakrit *Dhammapada* written in Kharoṣṭhī characters of about the 2nd or 3rd century A.D., the manuscripts of the Sanskrit Buddhist work *Saṃyuktāgamasūtra* copied about the 4th century A.D., the Bower manuscripts (the sheets of which have a hole in the midd e for a string to pass through) and the Bakhshali manuscript of a mathematical work copied about the 8th century A.D.¹ But the majority of birch-bark manuscripts are of the 15th and later centuries.

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¹ For some manuscripts dating from the 6th century, cf. N. Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. I, Intr.

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The originals of many of the royal charters and other records later copied on copper plates or stone were apparently written on birch-bark sheets.

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The inner bark of the Aguru or Aloe tree (*Aquilaria agallocha*), called Sāci in Assam, was the most popular material for writing manuscripts in the north-eastern corner of India.² The sheets of this bark, made specially ready for writing, were called Sāci-pāt (literally, ‘the Sāci leaf’) in Assamese. A large number of manuscripts written on this material have been discovered in Assam and some of them have found their way to the libraries and museums of the Western countries.³ A manuscript of the Sundarakāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, written on aloe-bark sheets in the Bengali-Maithili-Assamese characters of about the 15th century, is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. It is believed that some of the bark sheets of the manuscript contain a layer of wood with them.⁴

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² See JASB, 1894, p. 109.

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³ Journ. As., 1958, pp. 85 ff.

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⁴ Cf. ibid., Plate IX, p. 86.

3. Cloth and Hide

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⁵ Cf. P. K. Gode in Prof. M. Hiriyanna Comm. Vol., Mysore, 1952, pp. 1-7 of offprint.

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Pieces of cotton cloth (called paṭa or kārpāsika-paṭa in Sankrit), cut according to the required size, were used for writing after applying on it a paste of rice or wheat powder and making its faces smooth by rubbing them with conch- or cowrie-shell, etc. The Bhaḍlī or Gurḍe astrologers of Rajasthan are stated to have prepared illustrated almanacs on such cloth sheets, which they explained to the public for earning their livelihood.⁶ The mercantile community of the Mysore region are stated to have prepared their account books with such sheets of cloth seasoned with a paste made out of the powder of tamarind seeds and afterwards blackened with charcoal.¹ These books, called Kaḍitam or Kaḍatam, are said to have been written with chalk or steatite pencil so that the writing became white or black. Such account books of several centuries are preserved in the Sringeri Maṭha.² A copy of Śrīprabha-sūri's *Dharmavidhi* (with Udayasiṃha's commentary), preserved in a Jain library at Anhilwada Patan, is written on 93 sheets of cloth, each of them 13 inches long and 5 inches broad.³

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⁶ Ojha, Bhāratīya Prācīn-Lipimālā, p. 146.

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¹ Al-Bīrūnī says, "They (i.e. the Hindus) use black tablets for the children in the schools and write upon them along the long side, not the broad side, writing with a white material from the left to the right" (Sachau, *Alberuni's India*, Part I, p. 182).

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² *An. Rep. Mys. Arch. Dept.*, 1916, p. 18.

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³ Peterson's 5th Report, 1916, pp. 18, 113. The manuscript is dated 1351-52 A.D.

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About the last quarter of the 4th century B.C., Nearchus seems to have noted that the Indians used to write letters on well-beaten cotton cloth.⁴ According to the *Life of Hiuen Tsiang* by Hwui Li, king Harṣa 'wrote some letters on fine white cotton stuff and sealed them with red wax (or a composition)' and they were handed over to the official guides (called *Mahattaras*) of the Chinese pilgrim for presenting them to the authorities of the countries through which the pilgrim would pass.⁵ The *Harṣacarita* (Ucchvāsa V) mentions a *lekha* or letter brought to Harṣa by a person, which is stated to have been 'tied in his forehead-wrap of rags of deep indigo blue', i.e. in his blue turban.

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⁴ Cf. Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 6.

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⁵ *Beal's trans.*, p. 190.

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A stone inscription of about the first quarter of the 8th century A.D. refers to itself as a *kraya-cirikā*, i.e. 'a deed of purchase written on a piece of cloth'.⁶ The original document must have been later engraved on the stone.

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⁶ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVI, p. 246; *JBORS*, June 1944, pp. 198 ff.

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According to Yājñavalkya (I, 319), the royal charters were written on cloth (*paṭa* explained as *kārpāsika-paṭa* by the commentator Vijñāneśvara) or copper plate (*tāmra-paṭṭa*). Some of the Śātavāhana charters later engraved on cave walls refer to themselves as *paṭikā*.¹ It is however difficult to determine whether this word is derived from *paṭa* (cloth) or is an inscriptional Prakrit form standing for *paṭṭikā* derived from *paṭṭa* (plate).

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¹ *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 192, 201.

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Al-Bīrūnī says that he was told about the existence of a pedigree² of the Shāhī royal family of Kabul in the fortress of Nagarkot and this is stated to have been ‘written on silk’. Bühler noticed a list of Jain Sūtras written in ink on a piece of silk in a Jain library at Jaisalmer.³ Some fragmentary records on silk were discovered from Central Asian sites.⁴

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² Sachau, *Alberuni’s India*, Part II, p. 11.

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³ Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 93.

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⁴ See N. P. Chakravarti, *India and Central Asia*, p. 75.

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Parchment was in general use as a writing material in early and medieval times in Western Asia and Europe. But it was rarely used in India, if at all. Reference to hide as a writing material is however found in Buddhist literature,⁵ while Subandhu’s *Vāsavadattā* speaks of *ajina* (skin of an antelope or tiger) as a writing material.⁶ Some leather documents have been discoverd from such Central Asian sites as Niya and Endere.⁷

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⁵ Bühler, op. cit., p. 95.

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⁶ Hall’s ed., p. 182. A blank piece of parchment was found among the manuscripts in a library at Jaisalmer. The Petersburg collections are said to possess some pieces of leather with writing in Indian characters, which were secured from Kashgarh. See Bühler, loc. cit., pp. 95-96.

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⁷ N. P. Chakravarti, *India and Central Asia*, pp. 23-24.

4. Paper

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It is generally believed that the Chinese first made paper in 105 A.D.⁸ Indians must have known paper through the Chinese travellers and I-tsing seems to refer to Indian paper,⁹ though it was certainly not a popular writing material.

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⁸ See P. K. Gode’s ‘Migration of Paper from China to India’ in K B. Joshi’s *Paper Making as a Cottage Industry*, pp. 205 ff. Al-Bīrūnī says, “It was in China that paper was first manufactured. Chinese prisoners introduced the fabrication of paper in Samarkand, and thereupon it was made in various places, so as to meet the existing want” (Sachau, *Alberuni’s India*, Part I, p. 171). The Arabs are supposed to have begun to use paper from the middle of the 8th century A. D. (Wayriffe, *Arabica and Islamica*, p. 11; cf. Barnett, *Antiquities of India*, p. 229).

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⁹ See Gode, loc. cit.

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There is no doubt that the practice of writing on palmyra leaves and birch bark was much more popular, even though the word *śaya*, Sanskritized from Chinese *tsie* meaning ‘paper’, occurs in Sanskrit-Chinese lexicons of the 8th century A.D., which also recognise *kakali* or *kakari* no doubt Sanskritized forms of *kāghaz*.¹

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¹ P.C. Bagchi, *Deux Lexiques Sanskrit-Chinois*, Tome I, p. 287.

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In writing manuscripts of books on paper, the sheets were generally cut according to the size of palmyra-leaf or birch-bark sheets and perforation for the string was made in the same way as in the leaf and bark manuscripts. For writing the manuscripts of important works, sometimes a paste, prepared by boiling rice or wheat powder in water, was applied to both sides of the paper sheets and, when it was dried, the sheets were rubbed with conch-or cowrie-shell, etc., to make the surface smooth.

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The earliest paper manuscript discovered in Gujarat was copied in 1223-24 A. D.² M. A. Stein³ refers to a Kashmirian manuscript of the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* on paper which was copied in 1089 A.D. Some manuscripts, written on paper, covered with a layer of gypsum, in North Indian characters of about the 5th century A.D. or a slightly earlier date, were discovered near Yarkhand in Central Asia.⁴ But they may have been written outside India.

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² Bühler’s *Catalogue of Mss.*, Vol. I, p. 238, No. 147.

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³ *Catalogue of Jammu Mss.*, 1894, p. 8. The *Bulletin of the Ramavarma Research Institute*, Vol. VI, Part ii, July 1938, p. 125, contains the statement: “Paper Mss. begin with the date 1236 Saṃvatsara, i.e. 1180 A. D.” But the statement is doubtful.

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⁴ *JASB*, Vol. LXII, p. 8; Vol. LXVI, pp. 213 ff. For some paper documents from Central Asia, see also N. P. Chakravarti, *India and Central Asia*, pp. 24-25.

5. Wood

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Wooden slabs or planks with four legs were used in some parts of India in the schools before the introduction of slates. Some mud or chalk was applied to the surface of the wooden slate on which brick powder was evenly spread. Figures of sums were then written with the help of a blunt stick, called *bartanā* or *barthā* in Rajasthan. The astrologers and merchants of Rajasthan made their rough calculations on such wooden ‘slates’ which were also used in some other parts of India even down to recent times.¹

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¹ Ojha, *Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā*, p. 146.

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The *phalaka*, mentioned in the Jātaka stories in connection with young learners in elementary schools, was apparently wooden slabs or planks while the *Vinayapiṭaka* refers to the early use of wooden boards or bamboo chips as writing material.² Bamboo chips called *śalākā*, with the names of the bearers incised on them, served as passports to Buddhist monks. Kātyāyana and Daṇḍin speak respectively of plaints written on boards with *pāṇḍu-lekha* (chalk) and of royal declarations written on a varnished board.³ A large number of wooden sheets with Kharoṣṭhī writings have been discovered in Central Asia. They are mostly of the nature of letters.⁴ Some of these wooden records are wedge-shaped (called *kila-mudrā* in the documents themselves) and some are rectangular tablets.⁵

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² Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, pp. 5, 93.

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³ Loc. cit. Manuscripts on varnished boards are common in Burma. The Bodleian Library, Oxford, is said to possess a manuscript on wooden boards, which was secured from Assam. They may however really be sheets of Aloe bark with a layer of wood attached to them (cf. *Journ. As.*, 1958, p. 86). Poor people of U. P. copied religious works on black boards with chalk (R.L. Mitra in Gough’s *Collection and Preservation of the Records of Ancient Sanskrit Literature*, 1878, p. 18).

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⁴ See A. M. Boyer, E. J. Rapson, E. Senart and P. S. Noble, *Kharoṣṭhī Inscriptions*, Part I (1920), Part II (1927), Part III (1929); *Select Inscriptions*, pp. 234 ff.

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⁵ See N. P. Chakravarti, *India and Central Asia*, pp. 21 ff.

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There are also some Indian records engraved on wooden subjects, e.g., the pillars from Kirari, the ceiling rib of a Bhaja cave,⁶ etc., which properly form the subject of the following section.

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⁶ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 152 ff.; *Indian Archaeology*, 1955-56, Plate XLIV.

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MATERIALS FOR ENGRAVING OR EMBOSSING

1. Stone

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Stone was used from the earliest times for engraving writing for the purpose of making it *cira-sthitika* or everlasting.¹ Inscriptions were often engraved on rocks, stone pillars or slabs, stone images or their pedestals and stone articles such as jars or their covers, etc.

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¹ Various kinds of stones were used for engraving inscriptions. We have inscriptions on blocks of basalt or trap, columns of sandstone, prisms of crystal, etc. Precious stones were sometimes used for making seals or medals. For a cornelian seal, see *CII*, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 7-8. Among stone inscriptions, we have official and private records, royal proclamations, treaties between kings, agreements between private individuals, grants and donations, poetical effusions, etc.

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Sometimes epigraphs were incised without making the surface of the stone sufficiently smooth; but often, especially when an inscription of the eulogy (*praśasti*) type was engraved, the stone was carefully dressed and made very smooth by chiselling and sometimes it was even made shiny by rubbing it with smooth pieces of stone. A record was often composed by a poet or learned man or a high royal officer and was written with ink or chalk on the surface of the stone by a calligraphist, sometimes only a few lines at a time, and ultimately the letters were engraved by an artisan with the help of a chisel. To ensure the straightness of the lines, straight lines were sometimes drawn on the stone with the help of a ruler and chalk or a pointed instrument or of a string dipped in ink or dye as even now used by the carpenters for drawing straight lines on wooden blocks for splitting them into planks.

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Generally stone slabs were at first inscribed and then fixed into their proper place in the foundations or walls of temples, step-wells, etc. Such slabs had often raised or lined borders. Stone slabs bearing carefully engraved inscriptions, such as the *Lalitavigraharāja* and *Harakelināṭaka* inscriptions in the Ajmer Museum, show that sometimes a break or damage in the stone was covered up with metal.

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A single slab of stone was generally used for engraving an inscription; but in some cases it was incised on several slabs, especially when it was a big eulogy or a book. Rāṇā Kumbhā’s inscription¹ in the Kumbhasvāmin or Māmādeva temple at Kumbhalgadh is written on five stone slabs while the kāvya entitled Rājapraśasti, written in 24 cantos by an Āndhra poet named Raṇachoḍa on the occasion of the excavation of the Rājasamudra tank by Rāṇā Rājasimha of Mewar, was engraved on no less than 24 slabs.² The Rājapraśasti slabs were fixed into the embankment of the said tank. Among other such works incised on stone slabs, mention may be made of Paramāra Bhoja’s Prakrit poem entitled Kūrmaśataka³ and Madana’s Pārijātamañjarī (or Vijayaśrīṇāṭikā).⁴ The Harakelināṭaka by the Cāhamāna king Vigraharāja IV (1153-64 A. D.) and the Lalitavigraharājaṇāṭaka by his court poet Someśvara were similarly engraved on stone slabs.⁵ A Digambara Jain work called Unnataśikhara Purāṇa, composed in 1170 A.D., was engraved on the flat surface of a rock at Bijolia in the Bhilwara District of the Udaipur Division of Rajasthan.⁶

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¹ See Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIV, pp. 304ff.

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² Ibid., Vols. XXIX-XXX, Appendix, pp. 1-123.

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³ Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII, pp. 243 ff.

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⁴ Ibid., pp. 101 ff.

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⁵ See Bhandarkar’s List, No. 289 and note.

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⁶ Ibid., No. 1854; Ojna, Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā, p. 150, note 6.

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Inscribed and uninscribed pillars of stone, found in different parts of India, are innumerable. They were raised for various purposes in all the ages of Indian history. Amongst the inscribed pillars, the earliest belong to the days of the Maurya emperor Aśoka (c. 272-232 B.C.).⁷ These are called stambha or śilā-stambha (i.e. stone pillar) in the epigraphs they bear. There are some pillars which may be classified as dhvaja-stambha⁸ or flag-staff (often standing before a temple and bearing inscriptions in some cases), jaya-stambha or victory-pillar¹ (often bearing the eulogy of a conqueror) and kīrti-stambha or fame-pillar² (often bearing the eulogy of a person who performed a pious deed calculated to render him famous). Certain memorial pillars known as hero-stones³ (often with inscriptions recording the death of warriors while fighting against enemies) and satī-stones⁴ (often bearing epigraphs recording the death of widows burning themselves in fire) are found in large numbers in the southern and western regions of India, though they are also known from other parts of the country. Besides these, we have also other kinds of inscribed pillars bearing small inscriptions. Some of these are votive pillars set up in religious establishments by pious men, especially pilgrims, for acquiring religious merit. They are also generally called stambha in the records incised on them. Instances of such votive pillars are numerous in the inscriptions discovered in the ruins of old Buddhist stūpas like those at Barhut, Sanchi and Nagarjunikonda.⁵ There is yet another class of memorial pillars similar to the hero- and satī-stones. The erection of such pillars in honour of one's dead relatives is referred to in several records of the early centuries of the Christian era,⁶ which mention the object on which they are engraved as yaṣṭi. Sometimes the memorial pillar bore the representation of the person in whose memory it was raised. Such a pillar was called chāyā-stambha (imagepillar).¹ Sacrificial pillars were called yūpa. We have a number of inscribed yūpas of the early period.²

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⁷ See CII, Vol. I, pp. xv ff.

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⁸ Cf., e.g., the Eran pillar inscription of 484 A.D. (ibid., Vol. III, pp. 88 ff.).

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¹ The Eran and Mandasor pillars bearing the inscriptions respectively of Samudragupta and Yaśodharman fall in this class. Cf. Select Inscriptions, pp. 260 ff.; 393 ff. A jaya-stambha could sometimes be regarded as a kīrti-stambha.

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² The Talagunda pillar bearing a praśasti of the Kadamba king Kākusthavarman, who excavated a tank near a Śiva temple, belongs to this category. Cf. ibid., pp. 450 ff.

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³ See, e.g., Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXI, pp. 323 ff.

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⁴ See, e.g., Hiralal's List, p. 46 (No. 78), p. 53 (No. 95), etc. In many cases, the inscriptions on the pillars record both the death of a hero and the self-immolation of his widow (cf. ibid., p. 49, No 83). The satī-stones are called māsti (mahāsati) in Kannada (A. R. Ep., 1951-52, Nos. B69-70, 85); cf. Gujarātī paliyā.

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⁵ See Barua and Sinha, Barhut Inscriptions; Ep. Ind., Vol II, pp. 95 ff.; Vol. XX, pp. 1 ff.; etc. Cf. JRASB, Letters, Vol. XV, 1949 pp. 6-8.

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⁶ See, e.g., Select Inscriptions, pp. 35-36, 167-68. They are also called gotra for gotra-śailikā (Ep. Ind., Vol. XXXIII, p. 172).

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¹ Cf. A. R. Ep., 1957-58, No. B 26. While arranging for the burning of a perpetual lamp before a deity, sometimes the lamp was placed in the hands of the image of a dead person made for the purpose. Such lamps were called chāyā-dīpa (SII, Vol. V., No. 1205).

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² See Select Inscriptions, pp. 92-93.

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We have also inscriptions on various other objects of stone besides a large number of images and seals.³

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³ For an inscription of votive character on a stone vase, see Indian Archaeology, 1955-56, Plate XLIV.

2. Earthen Objects

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Among inscriptions on bricks, mention may be made of a number of Buddhist Dhāraṇīs and Sūtras incised on such material as well as royal epigraphs recording achievements like the celebration of the Aśvamedha.⁴ Bricks bearing inscriptions of the latter class were apparently fixed into structures like the platform constructed for the performance of the horse-sacrifice.

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⁴ For Buddhist works on bricks, see Cunningham, ASR, Vol. I, p. 47; Vol. V, p. 102; etc. See also CII, Vol. II, Part i, p. 137. For the brick inscriptions referring to the horse-sacrifice performed by kings Devimitra, Dāmamitra and Śilavarman, see Ep. Ind., Vol. XXX, pp. 118ff.; Vol. XXXIII, pp. 99 ff.; Indian Archaeology, 1953-54, Plate XV. For other interesting brick inscriptions, cf. Ep., Ind., Vol. XXI, pp. 193ff.; Vol. XXIV, pp. 20ff.; A. R. Ep., 1951-52, No. B262; 1952-53, Nos. B477, 499-500, 508, 513-14.

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Sometimes votive records were also engraved on lumps of clay, which were later baked and burnt. Clay seals and sealings, both burnt and unburnt, have been discovered in various sites of North India in large numbers.⁵ These seals belonged to private individuals, offices and officials, religious institutions, etc. Earthen pots were often inscribed, generally before being burnt. A large number of potsherds bearing inscriptions have been discovered.⁶ Some such pots were meant for being dedicated in favour of religious institutions or were specially made for some particular purpose such as interring the relics of a Sati.¹ As indicated above, the letters were generally either embossed or scratched on moist clay before the earthen material was baked.²

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⁵ See, e.g., Mem. ASI, No. 66. For terracotta plaques and tablets, see CII, Vol. II, Part i, p. 177; Indian Archaeology, 1955-56, Plate XLIII; A. R. Ep., 1952-53, No. B489.

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⁶ See, e. g., CII, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 173 ff.; Ep. Ind., Vol. XXVIII, pp. 125 ff.

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¹ Cf. JAHRS, Vol. XIX, pp. 203 ff.

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² Cf. Proc. ASB, 1896, pp. 9 ff.; see Ep. Ind., Vol. XXX, pp. 85ff. and Plate.

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Inscribed bricks were sometimes fixed into brick-made pillars.

3. Shells and Other Non-Metallic Objects

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Some inscribed conch-shells were discovered in the ruins of a Buddhist establishment at Salihundam in the Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh.³ The inscriptions are votive in character.

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³ See Indian Archaeology, 1953-54, Plate XVII.

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Seals made of ivory plaques and bearing legends are also known. There are mantras engraved on tortoise shells.

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Inscriptions were sometimes engraved on wooden objects such as beams and pillars,⁴ to which reference has already been made.

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⁴ For inscribed beams, see ibid., 1955-56, Plate XLIV, A.; A.R.Ep., 1952-53, No. B322. For inscribed pillars of wood, see Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, pp. 152ff.

4. Copper

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Among metals, copper was the most popular writing material in ancient and medieval India.

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Official charters, especially grants made by kings and subordinate rulers (called tāmra-patra, tāmra-śāsana, tāmra, etc.) were generally engraved on copper plates which served the donees as title-deeds. Fa-hien's statement⁵ that, about 400 A.D., Buddhist monasteries in India possessed copper-plate grants some of which dated from the Buddha's time may not be trustworthy; but the practice of issuing copper-plate grants is certainly very old.⁶

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⁵ Beal, Si-yu-ki, Vol. I, p. xxxviii.

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⁶ The Sohgaura plate is really a bronze plaque cast from a mould. For details of copper-plate grants, see below.

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Many North Indian royal families incised their charters on one or both sides of single copper plates while most of the royal families of South India engraved their charters on a number of plates held together by a copper ring passing through holes made in the left or upper margin of the plates. Certain West Indian royal families incised their documents on the inner side of two plates strung often on two rings. Some North Indian royal families like the Bhauma-Nārakas of Assam had their grants engraved on many plates.¹ Royal grants were sometimes engraved on peculiar objects of copper.²

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¹ See Bhāskaravarman's charters from Nidhanpur and Dubi both engraved on no less than six plates (P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī*, pp. 1 ff. ; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, pp. 287 ff.).

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² Cf. the Balasore copper axe-head grant of Gajapati Puruṣottama (Bhandarkar's List, No. 1753).

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The plates, which were small, medium or big in size, were generally oblong in shape. The royal seal, previously fashioned from a mould, was usually fixed to the upper or left margin of single plates and on the joint of the ring holding several plates together. The seals were generally of bronze and were so cast from moulds that the emblems and legends on them appeared on a counter-sunk surface. On plates having the seal fixed at the top, the lines were incised breadthwise, while those having the seal at the left margin had the lines engraved lengthwise. Similarly, the writing on multiplate charters is lengthwise or breadthwise according as the ring holding them passes through holes made in the left or top margin of the plates.

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When the holes were made in the upper margin, it was often in the upper margin of the obverse of the plates and in the lower margin on their reverse. When two rings were used to hold the plates together, they generally passed through holes in the upper margin of the plates. For the protection of the writing, the rims of the plates were sometimes thickened or raised and generally the outer sides of the first and last plates of a set were kept blank.

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³ According to Bāṇa's *Harṣacarita* (Nirnaysagar Press ed., p. 227), the state seal of king Harṣa was made of gold. The royal seals on cheaper material like bronze or clay were prepared for various purposes. The moulds were probably of metal or burnt clay.

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The engraving was done sometimes from a draft. Often the text was written on the plates with ink or was scratched with a needle and the letters were cut according to their shapes thus drawn by means of a chisel. Sometimes, especially in certain South Indian records, the engraving looks like scratching and it is possible that, in such cases, the surface of the plate was covered with a layer of a substance like mud and the writing was done, when it was in a semi-dried condition, by means of a graver. The engraving of the letters in some early epigraphs like the Kalwan plate¹ is done by dots instead of continuous strokes.

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXI, p. 259 and Plate.

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Mistakes in the grants engraved were generally left uncorrected. But, in certain cases, the wrong letters were rubbed off or beaten in by hammering and the correct letters were re-engraved on the erasures. In some of the medieval copper-plate grants, the corrections were engraved in the margins of a plate occasionally with indications of the omission or correction.

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Occasionally old or rejected copper plates were utilized for engraving fresh charters. Although they were often thoroughly refashioned, in some cases the old writing was beaten in by hammering and the new text was re-engraved. In the latter case, traces of the older writing are often still noticeable. We have a number of such palimsests.²

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² See, e.g., ibid., Vol. XXV, Plate facing p. 191.

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The plates of copper were fashioned with hammer by the brazier and some of them still exhibit traces of hammering. A number of the plates are small, thin and light while others are big, thick and heavy. The Taxila plate of Patika is so thin that it was found bent double and it weighs only 3½ ounces. The size of a plate depended on factors like the length of the writing to be engraved (i.e. the nature of the draft used in a particular area), the size of the letters in the copy prepared by the clerk, etc. The smiths made the plates according to the size of the clerks' drafts received by them. When the drafts were written on palmyra leaves, the plates were narrow and long, while, for copying drafts on birch bark, the plates required to be much broader, sometimes almost square. The plates used by the Vijayanagara kings were shaped like stone stelae. The copper-plate grants of the kings of the Maitraka dynasty of Valabhī clearly show how the size of the documents increased with the increase in the length of the eulogies. The eulogies in the records of the later members of the family had to mention a much larger number of predecessors.

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Some inscriptions engraved on copper plates are not grants. A few such records are the *yantras* of the Brāhmaṇas and Jains, engraved on copper plates of various shapes and sizes. The practice of engraving books on copper plates is also known. According to a tradition recorded by Hiuen-tsang, Kaniṣka caused the Buddhist religious texts to be engraved on copper plates.¹ There is also a story that Sāyaṇa’s commentary on the Vedas was engraved on copper plates.² Whether these traditions are genuine or not, we have actually the Tāllapākaṁvari works in Telugu engraved on many copper plates preserved at Tirupati.³

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¹ See Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, Vol. I, p. 155; Watters, *On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India*, Vol. I, p. 271. Cf. the Kasia copper plate containing the *Nidānasūtra* in Sanskrit and deposited by a person in the local *Nirvāṇacaitya* (Bhandarkar’s List, No. 1754).

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² Cf. Burnell, *Elements of South Indian Palaeography*, p. 86.

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³ *A. R. Ep.*, 1912, No. 568.

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We have a number of copper statues bearing inscriptions on their bases. Objects of general use made of copper were often inscribed⁴ and the custom is still prevalent. Such inscriptions were usually either votive or indicative of the ownership of the objects. There are also small Buddhist texts engraved on copper plaques or seals.⁵

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⁴ See the Taxila copper vase and ladle inscriptions (*CII*, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 87 ff.), the Jamalgarhi lamp inscription (ibid., p. 116), the Wardak (Khawat) vase inscription (ibid., pp. 165 ff.), etc. For an inscribed copper cauldron, see *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVI, p. 15.

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⁵ See *Indian Archaeology*, 1954-55, Plate XLIX. ; *A. R. Ep.*, 1956, No. B120.

5. Gold and Silver

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There are references in Buddhist literature to family records of rich merchants, royal orders and religious regulations being engraved on golden plates¹ while Burnell refers to the practice of engraving royal letters and land grants on such plates.² We have some gold records including a plate bearing a votive inscription in Kharoṣṭhī discovered in the ruins of Taxila.³ But gold is too precious a metal to be generally used for such purposes.

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¹ See Bühler, op. cit., p. 95; Ojha, op. cit., p. 5, notes 6-8. Gold plates with Buddhist Dhāraṇīs inscribed on them have been discovered outside India (cf. Bulletin of the Archaeological Survey of the Republic of Indonesia, No. 4, 1958, p. 3).

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² Elements of South Indian Palaeography, pp. 90, 93.

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³ Cf. Cunningham, ASR, Vol. II, pp. 129-30, Plate LIX; CII, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 83 ff. A few Buddhist records engraved on gold plates have been discovered in India and Burma. See Select Inscriptions, pp. 462 ff. The British Museum is stated to possess some manuscripts on gold-plated palmyra leaves (Bühler, op. cit., p. 95). A book of 24 thick golden leaves bound together by a copper wire was found from the Dhāmdaha tank (Dacca District, East Bengal) and was melted down (Bhattasali, Icon. Bud. Brahm. Sculp Dac. Mus., p. x). For the gold jars, bowl, pendant and palanquin of a deity with inscriptions, see A. R. Ep., 1952-53, Nos. B 345-48.

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Among the few inscriptions on silver plates,⁴ mention may be made of the Bhattiprolu⁵ and Taxila⁶ inscriptions. The Jains sometimes write certain yantras on plates of silver, which are found in some Jain temples.⁷ But, being a precious metal, silver was rarely used for such purposes.

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⁴ See Burnell, Elements of South Indian Palaeography, p. 87; Rea, Mem. Arch. Surv. Ind., No. 15, p. 13, Plate XXII; Journ. Pali T. Soc., 1883, pp. 134 ff. In the British Museum, there are manuscripts on silver-plated palmyra leaves (Bühler, Indian Palaeography, p. 95).

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⁵ Bühler, op. cit., p. 95.

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⁶ Ep. Ind., Vol. XIV, p. 295; CII, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 70 ff.; Select Inscriptions, pp. 129-30. This is the Taxila silver scroll inscription of 79 A.D., which is very thin and measures only 6½ inches by 1⅞ inches. Silver inscriptions from Taxila include cups, plate with three legs, a circular plate, a silver sieve, a disc, etc. See CII, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 97 ff., p. 151.

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⁷ Ojha, Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā, p. 152, note 5.

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The engraving of the owner's name on silver objects is old.⁸

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⁸ See the Taxila silver vase inscription of 34 A.D. (Select Inscriptions, p. 131).

6. Bronze, Iron and Other Metals

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Many bronze images bear inscriptions, in most cases on the pedestal. An inscribed bronze casket was discovered at Manikiala.¹ The early inscription known as the Sohgaura copper plate is really written on a small bronze plaque.² The seals affixed to the copper-plate grants are generally made of bronze. They often bear a legend along with the royal emblems and were cast in moulds and later affixed to the plates on the copper rings on which the plates were strung or on the plates themselves when the charters were incised on single plates.

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¹ CII, Vol. II, Part i, p. 150.

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² JAS, Letters, Vol. XVIII, pp. 1 ff. The plate, which was not fashioned by hammering as in the case of most copper plates, was cast in a mould of sand. The letters and emblems were previously scratched into the mould with a pointed instrument. They therefore appear on the plate in relievo.

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Canons of the late medieval period often bear inscriptions.³ The Mehrauli (near Delhi) iron pillar bears an inscription⁴ of king Candra who is probably identical with Candragupta II (376-413 A.D.) of the Imperial Gupta dynasty of Magadha. A huge iron trident in the Acaleśvara temple on Mount Abu bears an inscription⁵ of Vikrama 1468, Phālguna-sudi 15.

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³ Cf. Bhandarkar's List, Nos. 1141-43, 1148-49, 1152-53, etc.

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⁴ Select Inscriptions, pp. 275 ff.

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⁵ Cf. Ojha, op. cit., p. 154.

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The bells in many temples bear inscriptions recording their gift in favour of the temples in question.⁶ The practice of incising the owner's name on bell-metal utensil is well known, although it cannot be regarded as a popular material for engraving.⁷

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⁶ There are incribed bells, e.g., in the Bodhagaya and Tripurā-sundari (Udaypur, Tripura State) shrines.

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⁷ Amongst other rare metals used for writing, mention may be made of tin and lead. A Buddhist manuscript on tin sheets is preserved in the British Museum (Bühler, op. cit., p. 96) while lead coins sometimes bearing legends were issued by the kings such as those of the Śātavāhana dynasty.

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Inscribed plates or plaques of brass, etc., were sometimes nailed on the doors of temples.⁸

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⁸ Cf. A. R. Ep., 1953-54, No. B135.

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INK AND PEN

1. Ink

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Ink for writing is called *maṣi*, *maṣī*, *masi* or *masī* and *melā* in Sanskrit. It was prepared with lamp-black or charcoal mixed in water with gum, sugar, etc. The ink was put in pots called in Sanskrit *maṣi-bhājana*, *melāmandā*, *melāndhu*, *melāndhukā*, *maṣimaṇi*, *maṣi-pātra*, *maṣi-bhāṇḍa*, *maṣi-kūpikā*, etc.

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Writing ink was generally of two kinds, viz. lasting and washable, the first of which was used in copying manuscripts and the second for writing things like letters and the account-books of shop-keepers. Cheap ink was made of lamp-black mixed with catechu, gum, etc.

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For preparing lasting ink, the resin of the pipal tree was ground nicely and mixed with water kept for sometime in an earthen pot. It was then boiled on fire and a quantity of nicely ground borax and lodhra was mixed with it while boiling. This thing was ultimately strained through cloth. To the liquid thus prepared¹ was mixed lamp-black, made by burning sesame oil in lamps, in order to make the colour of the liquid sufficiently black. This process of preparing black ink was prevalent in Rajasthan till recent times.²

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¹ This was called *alakta* used by women for dying certain parts of their body especially the feet and the lips.

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² See Ojha, op. cit., p. 155.

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The ink for writing manuscripts on birch-bark sheets was made by boiling the powder of the burnt husk of almond in cow's urine.³ Writing in this ink could not be washed away with water.

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³ Bühler's Kashmir Report, p. 30.

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Among coloured inks, red ink was the most popular. Often *alakta*, referred to above, was used for writing. Another kind of red ink was made of vermilion mixed with gum in water. Red ink was used to write particular expressions and passages (e.g. colophons of chapters) in a manuscript, on which the copyist wanted to put special stress.

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By mixing green colour with gum in boiling water, people prepared green ink. Similarly yellow ink was made from the yellow orpiment. Such special inks were used as red ink was done. For deleting a letter or a group of letters, often it was covered with yellow orpiment or encircled by a line or endowed with one or more small vertical strokes above the letter or letters. These marks were sometimes made in coloured ink. Coloured ink is mentioned in the Puranic sections dealing with the donation of manuscripts.¹ Chalk, red lead or minium (*hiṅgula*) was generally used as a substitute for ink.²

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¹ Hemādri’s Dānakhaṇḍa, pp. 549 ff. See R. L. Mitra, *Notices of Sans. Mss.*, p. 3, Plate 1.

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² Bühler, op. cit., p. 98.

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Gold and silver powder was mixed with gum in boiling water in order to prepare golden and silvery ink respectively. Such costly inks were used generally by painters. But sometimes they were used in writing letters and manuscripts on behalf of rich people.³

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³ See Ojha, *Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā*, p. 156, note 1.

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The writing on cloth and birch bark referred to by Nearchus and Curtius suggests that ink was used by the Indians in the 4th century B.C. The word *lipi*, from the root *lip*, found in Pāṇini’s grammar (c. 5th century B. C.) and the inscriptions of Aśoka (c. 272-232 B.C.), points to the same conclusion. A pre-Christian record written in ink has been found on a relic vessel from the ruins of Andher.⁴ One of the earliest manuscripts written in ink is the Kharoṣṭhī *Dhammapada* from Khotan. Several records painted in ink on stone have been discovered in different parts of India.⁵

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⁴ Cunningham, *Bhilsa Topes*, p. 349, Plate XXX, 6; cf. pp. 295-308.

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⁵ Cunningham, *ASR*, Vol. XXI, p. 119, Plate XXX; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, p. 275; Vol. XXXI, p. 168; etc.

2. Pen and Other Instruments

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*Lekhanī* (literally ‘the instrument for writing’) is a general name for the stilus, pencil, brush, pen, etc.¹ Varṇikā, mentioned in early Indian literature, was a wooden pen, pointed at the end without a slit. It was used by young learners at the elementary schools. Iṣikā or iṣīkā was originally a pen made of reed or bamboo branch. It was used by the copyists of manuscripts. The varṇa-vartikā mentioned in the Daśakumāracarita (Ucchvāsa II) may have been a kind of brush. The word kalama may have been adopted in Sanskrit from Greek through Arabic. But it is recognised as a Sanskrit word in the Sanskrit-Chinese lexicons of the 8th century A. D.²

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¹ Cf. however the information from the Kāvyamīmāṃsā referred to below.

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² P.C. Bagchi, Deux Lexiques Sanskrit-Chinois, Tome I, p. 287.

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For scratching letters on palmyra leaves, iron pens with sharp points were in use especially in the southern parts of the country. Sometimes ornamental designs at the end of chapters in palmyra-leaf manuscripts written in ink were drawn with such iron pens. The prevalent Sanskrit name for the instrument is śalākā (Marāṭhī saḷaī). Rājaśekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṃsā³ refers to it as loha-kaṇṭaka or iron needle used to write on tāla-dala whereas lekhanī and masi-bhājana are mentioned in connection with writing on tāḍi-patra and birch bark. The work also mentions other writing materials as phalaka (a board) and khaṭikā (a piece of chalk), both preserved in a small box, and refers to the practice of writing on well-cleaned bhittis meaning floors or walls.

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³ G. O. S. ed., p. 50.

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A kind of ruler (called ṭāmbī or kambā in Rajasthan) was used for drawing straight lines in order to keep the lines of writing straight. Another instrument for drawing straight lines used by the copyists of manuscripts was called rekhā-pāṭī or samāsa-pāṭī which was a piece of wood or cardboard with strings fixed at equal distances.⁴

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⁴ See Ojha, op. cit., pp. 157-58. For its probable predecessors, see Annec dota Oxoniensia, I, iii, p. 66; Anzeiger d. W. Akademie, 1897, No. VIII.

Linked texts (24)