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Indian Epigraphy c9.t1: 1. Palmyra Leaves

Indian Epigraphy c9.t1

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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.

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