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Indian Epigraphy c9.t3: 3. Cloth and Hide

Indian Epigraphy c9.t3

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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.

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