An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s3.3

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.