Indian Epigraphy c9.t2.1

c9.t2.1

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