History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c36.s2.17

v1.c36.s2.17

The other process of paper-making was like this (Ray, 1956, pp. 234-35). Here the raw materials were old clothes, old tents, the bark of certain shrubs and trees etc. After having been washed well and soaked in water for several days, these materials were beaten with a wooden hammer or *dhenkī*. The pulp was mixed with a little water in a lime-lined (*cūṇam*) reservoir, where the beating operation was also carried out. The workmen dipped their moulds into the reservoir, and the mixture, when lifted out, would become paper. It was then removed, and each sheet drawn through a second reservoir of water and then hung up to dry. A quantity of gum arabic was dissolved in water into which the beaten pulp was placed. The water in the second reservoir, through which the sheet were drawn, also contained gum in the form of a mucilage, as well as some alum dissolve in it. The moulds or forms used by the workmen were generally made of bamboo. The gum (gum arabic) was obtained as an exudation from a tree, known commonly as the babool tree.