A History of Sanskrit Literature c4.30

c4.30

All the old palm leaf, birch bark, and paper Sanskrit MSS. have been written with ink and a reed pen, usually called *kalama* (a term borrowed from the Greek *kalamos*). In Southern India, on the other hand, it has always been the practice to scratch the writing on palm leaves with a stilus, the characters being subsequently blackened by soot or charcoal being rubbed into them.