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An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s3: 20.3 Materials

An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s3

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English

20.3 Materials

v1.c25.s3.1

Archaeology recovers only the durable writing materials. Aśoka records that he got his edicts engraved on stones so that they might endure long and used pillars and rocks for this purpose. In later periods engraving was done on stone slabs, temples, caves, images, vases and caskets. Terracotta seals and sealings [3.2] have on them names of individuals or institutions, and sometimes ennobling tracts, often from scriptural texts. Besides those containing names or one or more letters, there are bricks with Buddhist *sūtras* and in a solitary case a mortgage deed engraved on them. Inscribed conch-shells and tortoise shells and seals made of ivory plaques have also been discovered.

v1.c25.s3.2

Copper-plates were used for recording many types of inscriptions and were called *tāmra-paṭa*, *tāmra-patra*, *tāmra-śāsana*, *śāsana-patra* or *dāna-patra* according to their contents, but almost invariably land-grants were inscribed on them. The SOHGAURA inscription is on a bronze tablet cast in a mould of sand. But generally the copper-plates were hammered out and the letters were incised with a chisel or sometimes with a graver. Fa-Hien speaks of Buddhist monasteries possessing copper-plate grants belonging to the times of Buddha, but the available grants are from the middle of the 4th century, increasing in number between the 6th and the 12th centuries. According to Hiuen Tsang, in the Buddhist assembly convened by Kaniṣka commentaries on the *Tripiṭakas* were engraved on copper-plates and buried under *stūpas*. The tradition cannot be brushed aside as improbable considering the later practice of engraving full texts on copper-plates. Inscriptions appear on a few objects made of other metals, but they were not in common use. The use of gold and silver for recording in religious contexts is indicated by a Kharoṣṭhī votive inscription on a gold plate from Taxila and the Bhattiprolu and Taxila silver-plate inscriptions. The iron pillar at Mehrauli (Delhi) bears an inscription of king Candra.

v1.c25.s3.3

*Bhūrja-patra*, the inner bark on the birch tree grown in the Himalayan region, was a very common writing material which spread to different parts of India and to C. Asia. Its use is recorded by Q. Curtius at the time of Alexander's invasion and the *Kumāra-sambhava* (1.7). ‘Al-Bīrūnī describes how birch-bark was treated. The birch-bark manuscripts do not go before the 15th century, but in C. Asia those of the 2nd-3rd century have been preserved under sand and stone. In n.-e. India sheets of the inner bark of aloe (*aguru*) tree locally called *sānchī* were in popular use. Palm leaves or *tāḍa-patras* (covering *tāḍī* as well, also spelt as *tāla* and *tālī*) were more popular and possibly more ancient as would appear from the fact that Taxila copper-plate of Patika (A.D. 21) and the birch-bark sheets of the Bower manuscripts were shaped after palm leaves. According to Hiuen Tsang's biographer Hwui Li the first Buddhist Council recorded the Buddhist canon on palm leaves. Hiuen Tsang himself mentions plam leaf as the common writing material. The Sanskrit terms *patra* and *parṇa* and Pāli *paṇṇa* in the context of writing refer to a palm leaf. In the n. pen and ink were used for writing on the leaves; in the s. letters were incised with a stylus and then besmeared with soot. The pre-15th century palm leaf manuscripts are destroyed possibly because of the hot and humid climate, but in cold and dry climate those of the early centuries of the Christian era have survived in C. Asia and of the 7th century in Nepal.

v1.c25.s3.4

Nearchus, a general of Alexander, noted that the Indians wrote on very closely woven linen cloth. Hwui Li and ‘Al-Bīrūnī mention the use respectively of white cotton stuff and silk for writing. *Cirikā*, *paṭa* and *paṭikā* in ancient records refer to documents written on a piece of cloth. In Rajasthan and Mysore the use of cotton cloth treated with paste persists. The Jaina libraries contain manuscripts on cloth. C. Asia sites have yielded records on silk.

v1.c25.s3.5

Leather documents are reported from C. Asia, but not from India. Some Buddhist texts mention hide as a writing material and Subandhu's *Vasavadatta* implies the common use of *ajina* (skin of an antelope or tiger) for writing.

v1.c25.s3.6

Before it was popularized by the Muslims paper had been introduced by the Chinese. Sanskrit-Chinese lexicons of the 8th century mention *śaya* (from Chinese *tsie* meaning paper) and *kakalī* or *kakari* (from *kāghaz*). Some paper manuscripts from c. Asia are palaeographically of the 5th century. Though a few paper manuscripts of an earlier date are referred to the earliest available one in India belongs to 1223-4.

v1.c25.s3.7

The use of ink is implied in the work *lipi* in Pāṇini’s *Aṣṭādhyāyī* and the inscriptions of Aśoka. The evolution of some Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī letters in many cases shows the use of pen and ink. A pre-Christian relic vessel from Andher contains a record in ink. The Kharoṣṭhī *Dhammapada* from Khotan is among the earliest manuscripts in ink. The Sanskrit terms for ink (*maṣī* or its variants, and *melā*) refer to the powdering and mixing of colour-giving objects. Words for containers (*pātra*, *bhāṇḍa*, *kūpikā*, etc.) were suffixed to those for ink to signify ink-pots [20.2]. Besides the general term *lekhanī*, *varṇikā* was a wooden pen, *isīkā* or *iṣīkā* was a reed or bamboo pen and *varṇa-vartikā* was a kind of brush. The *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* mentions *loha-kaṇṭaka* (an iron needle for writing on *tāla-dala*), *lekhanī* and *maṣī-bhājana* (for writing on birch-bark) and *phalaka* (a board) and *khaṭikā* (a piece of chalk). Plaints written on boards with *pāṇḍu-lekha* (chalk) and royal declarations recorded on a varnished board are referred to in other sources. The *Vinaya-piṭaka* speaks of wooden boards as writing material. Young learners used wooden planks (*phalaka*). Some Gandhāra sculptures portray a child Bodhisattva and his classmates with writing boards and ink-pots. A recently discovered Śuṅga terracotta from Sugh, Dt Ambala, depicts a young boy, possibly Kṛṣṇa, practising alphabets on a writing-board in his lap (Chhabra, 1970).

v1.c25.s3.8

Chhabra, B. Ch., 1970, in *Bull. National Museum*, 2, pp. 14-16.—L. GOPAL

Linked texts (8)