An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c8.s2.5

v1.c8.s2.5

Seals were generally applied on a lump of moist clay over a knot of string binding a parcel or cover. The moist clay was dried in the sun or in the heat of fire from a distance. Such sealings show string marks on their back. A clay sealing on the knot of a string tied found a document in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi, is perhaps the only such sealing that has remained intact on a document; but some such sealings have been found in c. Asia (Stein, A., *Serindia*, I, Oxford, 1921, pp. 227 ff.). D.R. Bhandarkar's study of some BESNAGAR sealings (*ASI-AR*, 1914-15, pp. 80-1) shows that seals were also applied on the meeting points of the edges of two wooden tablets placed one upon another and secured with a string, as a well-defined mark at the meeting point runs longitudinally about the centre of the sealings. The wooden tablets (now lost) served either as writing pads or as covers for documents. (In Niya in c. Asia such wooden tablets have survived, Stein, *op. cit.*, p. 224). No instances of ancient ink-stamps on cloth have come to light.