Guest guest Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 IndiaArchaeology , YMalaiya <ymalaiya wrote: Writing materials in Ancient India Today the most common writing materials are pen and paper. Typewriter has been in use for some 150 years. But now it is the computer-machine that is being used more and more for writing, publishing and disslmination. The day is not far when humans world be conversing directly with the computers. In the twenty-first century the responsibility of carrying and conveying human thought will rest mainly with the computers. Writing materials have played a very prominent role in the development of cultures. They have helped not only in preserving the history and culture of mankind, but have also deeply influenced the scripts, languages as well as man's mode of thinking. To understand ancient writing materials, therefore, is to understand ancient cultures in a better light. In this article I will discuss mainly Indian writing materials. Today paper is the main material used for writing, but its origin is not in India. Modern paper is a Chinese invention and the word 'paper' is from Greek papyros, the tall paper-reed plant once very common in Egypt. The Hindi word Kagaja (paper) is of Persian origin. Paper is has been used in India only for about a thousand years. Before that the main writing materials in our country were birch-bark, palm-leaves and copper-plates. Besides these, agaru- bark, bricks, earthenware, shell, ivory, cloth, wood, etc. had also their uses as materials for writing. Today all the inscribed materials from the past are in the custody of museums, both Indian and foreign. But we should always keep in mind that these ancient writing materials have served Indian literature and science for more than two millennia. Therefore, I will first discuss the ancient writing materials before taking up the history of paper. Prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered at Bhimbetka, Pachmarhi, Adamgarh, Mirzapur and many other Indian sites. Here the paintings, in vivid and panoramic detail, depict the day-to-day life of the cave-dwellers. These paintings, which can be called the early pictorial writing, are done mostly in red and white and occasionally in green and yellow. The colours were taken from local minerals and were mixed with water and a fixative resin of some local tree or animal tallow. The brushes used were made of twigs or, for fine work, quills. Along with the rock paintings short Brahmi inscriptions have also been found at Bhimbetka and some other such sites. It is, thus, evident that in ancient India stone and natural colours were used as writing materials for thousands of years. Indus inscriptions, usually short and numbering about 4000, are found on a variety of objects : (1) steatite seals, (2) sealings on clay, miniature stone, terracotta or faience tablets, (3) copper tablets, (4) bronze implements, (5) bone and ivory rods, (6) pottery graffiti, and (7) miscellaneous objects, such as the unique inscription found at Dholavira lying face down on the floor in front of a crumbled gate and made of a white, crystalline material. We do not know the writing material the Indus people used in their mundane affairs or for composing their 'books'. The Sumerians and Babylonians, contemporaries of the Indus people, used clay tablets for their cuneiform script, which scholars are able to read. But the Indus script, unfortunately, still remains undeciphered! Before the discovery of the Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500-1800 BC) in 1921-22, many orientalists believed that the Vedic Indians did not have a writing system and they transferred their scriptures from generation to generation by the process of learning by heart. Thus, Max Muller says : " There is no mention of writing materials whether paper, bark or skin at the time when the Indian Diaskeuasts (= compilers) collected the songs of the Rishis; nor is there any allusion to writing during the whole of the Brahmana period. " Much evidence has since been obtained to show that writing was known in the Vedic period. Shatapatha Brahmana refers to the Rishi Vamadeva 'obtaining the Rig-Veda hymn by seeing it'. Aitareya Brahmana says, the Rishi 'read the hymn' after he looked at it. Marking of the ears of cows (e.g.,'8-marked cows') is also mentioned in the Rig-Veda. These and several other references prove that the oral tradition was available also in writing. It is, however, true that in those days teaching was oral and study from manuscripts was not considered as the proper method of learning. In the Buddhist Jatakas there are many references to the art of writing. Panini (c. 500 BC) in his Ashtadyayi refers to granth (book), lipikara (writer) and Yavanani lipi (Greek script). In Panini's grammar writing was an essential element in the technical arrangement of his rules. Several times he asks the reader to 'see' other rules of his composition. It is, thus, certain that this grammatical work of Panini was available in the form of a manuscript. But we have no definite knowledge of the writing materials used in those days. Stone was the principal writing material in use in ancient India. Engravings on stone, as emperor Ashoka himself expresses, are " such as to endure for a long time " . Such engravings were made on rocks, slabs, smoothed or rough pillars, images, caskets, vases, etc. Stone slabs or columns used to be inscribed with grant-deeds, royal eulogy, proclamations, agreements between individuals or kings and even with literary works. For example, the Kurmashataka, a poetical work in Prakrita by the scholar-king Bhoja of Dhara (Malwa) is engraved on stone slabs. Before inscribing or engraving, the stone used to be dressed by chiselling and polished by rubbing it with another stone having a smooth surface. Engraving on rough surface was not uncommon. The letters were then written on the surface of the stone with ink or a piece of chalk or painted with brush. Finally, the engraver incised the letters on the inked or painted portion. Any damage in the course of inscribing was immediately filled up with some sticky material. Putting inscriptions on stone pillars is a very old tradition. Emperor Ashoka (272-232 BC) got his edicts inscribed on rocks and also on stone pillars. Made of sandstone quarried from Chunar (UP), the pillars are monolithic and highly polished. Some of the pillars are 15 m high and weigh nearly 50 tons. These Ashokan pillars can be seen in Delhi, Allahabad, Lumbini and several other sites. There are also other kinds of Pillars. The Dwajastambha, which often carried an inscription, was erected in the courtyard of a temple. The Jayastambha carried an eulogy of a victorious king. The Kirtistambha was erected to commemorate some pious deed. Virastambha was put up in memory of a warrior who died fighting the enemy. The sacrificial pillar, called Yupastambha, also carried inscriptions. Bricks, Gold, Silver, Wood, etc. A large number of inscribed bricks have been unearthed from different places and are preserved in archaeological museums. Some inscribed bricks are related to the Ashwamedha sacrifices performed by various kings. Most of the early inscribed bricks carry Buddhist sutras, the letters having been scratched on the moist clay, before it was baked. Inscribed clay seals have been obtained from Nalanda and several other ancient sites. Specimens of some inscribed ivory bars and conch-shells have been discovered. Precious metals, gold and silver have been used for engraving and casting with characters. The Buddhist Jatakas often mention the use of gold-plates for recording royal letters and grant- deeds. The Kanha Jataka states, " He (Kanha Kumar) took in his hand a golden plate, and reading upon the golden plate the lines inscribed by his kinsmen of the former days, 'so much of the property gained by such one, so much by another,' thought he ... " . A gold plate with a Kharoshthi inscription has been found in a Stupa near Taxila. Likewise, a number of inscriptions on silver have also been obtained, one among them being from the Buddhist Stupa at Bhattiprolu. Also, there are inscriptions on a large number of coins made of gold and silver. Wooden board, called phalaka, was widely used for writing in ancient India. On it characters were written with ink or chalk (pandu- lekha). Phalaka was used by the students for learning to write alphabets and also for doing elementary calculations. Later on the term pati came to represent a wooden board and the word patiganita, i.e. calculation done on a pati, came into use. Alberuni, the Central Asian savant, writes, " They (Hindus) use black tablets for the children in the schools and write upon them along the long side, not the broad side, writing with a white material from the left to the right " . Mathematical calculation was also called dhuli-karma (dust-work), because the figures were written on dust spread on wooden board or on the ground. A finger of the hand or a piece of reed was used to write on the layer of the dust. Cloth : Cotton cloth (called karpasika-pata or simply pata in Sanskrit) was also used as writing material in ancient India. Nearchos (c. 326 BC), an admiral of Alexander's fleet, has mentioned that the Indians wrote letters on well-beaten cotton cloth. Cloth was prepared for writing by putting on it a thin layer of wheat or rice pulp and polishing with a conch-shell or a smooth stone after the same was dried. Writing on the pata was done with black ink. In Rajastan, almanacs and horoscopes were prepared on scrolls of cloth. In Kerala till recently cloth was used by traders for maintenance of accounts of a permanent nature. In Karnatak a till the last century processed cloth known as kaditam was in use. It was covered with a paste of tamarind-seed and afterwards blackened with charcoal-powder. Chalk or steatite pencils were used for writing on this black cloth. At times silk cloth was also used for writing. Alberuni writes, " I have been told that the pedigree of this royal family (the shahiyas of Kabul), written on silk, exists in the fortress of Nagarkot, and I much desired to make myself acquainted with it, but the thing was impossible for various reasons " . When it became difficult to procure papyrus from Egypt, the Greeks in the second century BC developed parchment, a prepared but untanned animal skin, as a medium for writing. It was a commonly used writing material in western Asia and Europe in early and medieval times. In India, animal skin, being considered impure, was not very often used for writing. However, in some Buddhist texts, skin is mentioned among the writing materials. From a passage in Subandhu's Vasavadatta (c. 600 AD) it is possible to infer that skin (ajina in Sanskrit) was used for writing. On this point Alberuni writes, " The Hindus are not in the habit of writing on hides, like the Greeks in ancient times " . But during the Muslim period a very thin parchment called charba was used for copying, drawing, etc. Metals : Only a few inscriptions on iron have been discovered, the most famous among them being on the iron pillar at Mehrauli, near Delhi. This Sanskrit inscription in Gupta Brahmi letters of the 5th century AD consists of six lines and mentions a king whose name is 'Chandra'. In the courtyard of the Gopeswar temple of Garhwal there is the five-metre high iron Trishula which has a 7th century Sanskrit inscription incised on it. Of all the varieties of metals, copper was the most commonly used material to write on in ancient and medieval India. The copper- plates were known as tamrapata, tamrapatra or tamrashasana. Fahian (c. 400 AD) records the existence of copper-plates in the Buddhist monasteries dating back to Buddha's time. Another Chinese pilgrim, Yuan Chwang (629-45 AD), asserts that King Kanishka got the sacred books of the Buddhist faith engraved on copper-plates. One of the earliest copper-plates, the Sahgaura plate, dates back to the Mauryan period. Two methods were followed in preparing copper-plates : (1) by hammering, and then engraving; (2) by casting in a mould of sand. Most of the copper-plates have been fashioned with the hammer into the required shape and size. The contents were then written with ink and then the coppersmith or goldsmith engraved the letters or incised them with a chisel. Sometimes the letters were inscribed with a punch in the form of dotted lines. The other method of preparing a copper-plate was to cast it in a mould of sand, in which the letters and the emblems had been previously scratched with a stilus or a pointed piece of wood. These, therefore, appear on the plate in relievo. The Sahgaura plate, the oldest tamrapatra known, has been cast in a mould of sand. When the document was lengthy, more than one plate was used and held together with copper rings. For protecting the writing, the rims of the plates were usually thickened and slightly raised. The first side of the first plate and the last of the last plate were left blank. Usually the number of plates in a decree or grant varies from two to nine. Palm-leaf : Till paper was introduced in India sometime in the eleventh century, palm-leaf was one of the most important materials used for writing purposes. The palm tree, which gives palm-leaves for manuscripts, is of two types -- Shritala or talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) and Kharatala or tad or palmyra palm (Borassus Flabelliformis). The former gives leaves that are long, smooth and supple. This species of palm grows abundantly on the Malabar coast, in Bengal, Myanmar and Ceylon. The Kharatala or tad leaves, on the other hand, are thick and they have a tendency to break very easily. The fibres of the Shritala leaves are more resistant to decay than the Karatala leaves. It is because of these reasons that Shritala leaves have been preferred to Kharatal leaves for writing manuscripts. To prepare palm-leaves for writing they were first dried, boiled in water and then dried again. Then they were smoothened and polished with a stone or conch-shell. The leaves were then cut to size, which varied from 15 cms to 1 metre in length and 2 to 10 cms in breadth. In South India a pointed stilus was used to incise letters on the palm-leaf, and then lamp-black or some colour pigment was rubbed into the incised letters. The other method, followed mostly in North India, was to use pen and ink. Palm-leaves could not be bound. One or two holes were bored in the leaves and then cords were passed through them. The manuscripts were generally placed between two wooden boards and the cord passing through the holes were wrapped round the boards. In a hot and humid climate the palm-leaves can not be preserved for a very long time. Therefore, earlier palm-leave MSS of Indian origin have been obtained mostly from Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia. According to a reference in the Life of Yuan Chwang, the Buddhist Canon was written on palm-leaves at the first council held soon after the passing away of the Buddha.The oldest palm-leaf manuscript was found in Sikiang, China. It is a drama by Ashavaghosha and belongs to the second century AD. An old Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript belonging to the sixth century AD is preserved in the Horiuzi temple in Japan. Several palm-leave MSS are preserved in the Darbar Library at Kathmandu. Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayan (1894- 1963) has discovered a large number of palm-leave MSS in Tibet. Numerous palm-leave MSS of 10th and later centuries have been obtained from Nepal, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Birch-bark : A very popular material for writing purposes in ancient India was birch-bark, called Bhurja-patra in Sanskrit. The birch is moderate- sized tree growing in the Himalayas at a height of nearly 14,000 feet. The inner bark of this tree was used for writing. The Greek writer of Alexander's time Q. Curtius mentions the tender inner bark of trees as serving the purpose of writing material. Kalidas in his Kumarasambhava mentions bhurja-tvak, birch-bark. Alberuni states that people in India use for writing the bark of Bhurja, a kind of tuz tree. He also records the method of preparation of Bhurja- patra : " They take a piece one yard long and as broad as the outstretched fingers of the hand, or somewhat less, and prepare it in various ways. They oil and polish it so as to make it hard and smooth, and then they write on it. The proper order of the single leaves is marked by numbers. The whole book is wrapped up in a piece of cloth and fastened between two tablets of the same size. Such a book is called Puthi. " Birch-bark leaves used to be written upon with a reed pen and specially prepared ink. Most of the birch-bark MSS have been obtained from Kashmir and Orissa. The oldest Bhurja MS is the Dhammapada in Kharoshthi script from Khotan (Sikiang) and dates back to the second century AD. Birch- bark MSS have also been obtained from Gilgit, Central Asia and some stupas in Afghanistan. The Bakshali MS deals with mathematics and the Navanitakam MS with medicine, both written on birch-bark and belonging to the 4th century AD. Agaru-bark : The bark of Agaru tree, which is called sanchipata in Assamese, has been extensively used in north-east India for writing and painting. Preparing the Agaru-bark for writing is a laborious process. Even then a large number of sanchapati MSS have been found, some of them also in foreign collections. Gunakar Muley http://www.vigyanprasar.com Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Shopping. --- End forwarded message --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2008 Report Share Posted September 5, 2008 IndiaArchaeology , YMalaiya <ymalaiya wrote: Writing materials in Ancient India Today the most common writing materials are pen and paper. Typewriter has been in use for some 150 years. But now it is the computer-machine that is being used more and more for writing, publishing and disslmination. The day is not far when humans world be conversing directly with the computers. In the twenty-first century the responsibility of carrying and conveying human thought will rest mainly with the computers. Writing materials have played a very prominent role in the development of cultures. They have helped not only in preserving the history and culture of mankind, but have also deeply influenced the scripts, languages as well as man's mode of thinking. To understand ancient writing materials, therefore, is to understand ancient cultures in a better light. In this article I will discuss mainly Indian writing materials. Today paper is the main material used for writing, but its origin is not in India. Modern paper is a Chinese invention and the word 'paper' is from Greek papyros, the tall paper-reed plant once very common in Egypt. The Hindi word Kagaja (paper) is of Persian origin. Paper is has been used in India only for about a thousand years. Before that the main writing materials in our country were birch-bark, palm-leaves and copper-plates. Besides these, agaru-bark, bricks, earthenware, shell, ivory, cloth, wood, etc. had also their uses as materials for writing. Today all the inscribed materials from the past are in the custody of museums, both Indian and foreign. But we should always keep in mind that these ancient writing materials have served Indian literature and science for more than two millennia. Therefore, I will first discuss the ancient writing materials before taking up the history of paper. Prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered at Bhimbetka, Pachmarhi, Adamgarh, Mirzapur and many other Indian sites. Here the paintings, in vivid and panoramic detail, depict the day-to-day life of the cave-dwellers. These paintings, which can be called the early pictorial writing, are done mostly in red and white and occasionally in green and yellow. The colours were taken from local minerals and were mixed with water and a fixative resin of some local tree or animal tallow. The brushes used were made of twigs or, for fine work, quills. Along with the rock paintings short Brahmi inscriptions have also been found at Bhimbetka and some other such sites. It is, thus, evident that in ancient India stone and natural colours were used as writing materials for thousands of years. Indus inscriptions, usually short and numbering about 4000, are found on a variety of objects : (1) steatite seals, (2) sealings on clay, miniature stone, terracotta or faience tablets, (3) copper tablets, (4) bronze implements, (5) bone and ivory rods, (6) pottery graffiti, and (7) miscellaneous objects, such as the unique inscription found at Dholavira lying face down on the floor in front of a crumbled gate and made of a white, crystalline material. We do not know the writing material the Indus people used in their mundane affairs or for composing their 'books'. The Sumerians and Babylonians, contemporaries of the Indus people, used clay tablets for their cuneiform script, which scholars are able to read. But the Indus script, unfortunately, still remains undeciphered! Before the discovery of the Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500-1800 BC) in 1921-22, many orientalists believed that the Vedic Indians did not have a writing system and they transferred their scriptures from generation to generation by the process of learning by heart. Thus, Max Muller says : " There is no mention of writing materials whether paper, bark or skin at the time when the Indian Diaskeuasts (= compilers) collected the songs of the Rishis; nor is there any allusion to writing during the whole of the Brahmana period. " Much evidence has since been obtained to show that writing was known in the Vedic period. Shatapatha Brahmana refers to the Rishi Vamadeva 'obtaining the Rig-Veda hymn by seeing it'. Aitareya Brahmana says, the Rishi 'read the hymn' after he looked at it. Marking of the ears of cows (e.g.,'8-marked cows') is also mentioned in the Rig-Veda. These and several other references prove that the oral tradition was available also in writing. It is, however, true that in those days teaching was oral and study from manuscripts was not considered as the proper method of learning. In the Buddhist Jatakas there are many references to the art of writing. Panini (c. 500 BC) in his Ashtadyayi refers to granth (book), lipikara (writer) and Yavanani lipi (Greek script). In Panini's grammar writing was an essential element in the technical arrangement of his rules. Several times he asks the reader to 'see' other rules of his composition. It is, thus, certain that this grammatical work of Panini was available in the form of a manuscript. But we have no definite knowledge of the writing materials used in those days. Stone was the principal writing material in use in ancient India. Engravings on stone, as emperor Ashoka himself expresses, are " such as to endure for a long time " . Such engravings were made on rocks, slabs, smoothed or rough pillars, images, caskets, vases, etc. Stone slabs or columns used to be inscribed with grant-deeds, royal eulogy, proclamations, agreements between individuals or kings and even with literary works. For example, the Kurmashataka, a poetical work in Prakrita by the scholar-king Bhoja of Dhara (Malwa) is engraved on stone slabs. Before inscribing or engraving, the stone used to be dressed by chiselling and polished by rubbing it with another stone having a smooth surface. Engraving on rough surface was not uncommon. The letters were then written on the surface of the stone with ink or a piece of chalk or painted with brush. Finally, the engraver incised the letters on the inked or painted portion. Any damage in the course of inscribing was immediately filled up with some sticky material. Putting inscriptions on stone pillars is a very old tradition. Emperor Ashoka (272-232 BC) got his edicts inscribed on rocks and also on stone pillars. Made of sandstone quarried from Chunar (UP), the pillars are monolithic and highly polished. Some of the pillars are 15 m high and weigh nearly 50 tons. These Ashokan pillars can be seen in Delhi, Allahabad, Lumbini and several other sites. There are also other kinds of Pillars. The Dwajastambha, which often carried an inscription, was erected in the courtyard of a temple. The Jayastambha carried an eulogy of a victorious king. The Kirtistambha was erected to commemorate some pious deed. Virastambha was put up in memory of a warrior who died fighting the enemy. The sacrificial pillar, called Yupastambha, also carried inscriptions. Bricks, Gold, Silver, Wood, etc. A large number of inscribed bricks have been unearthed from different places and are preserved in archaeological museums. Some inscribed bricks are related to the Ashwamedha sacrifices performed by various kings. Most of the early inscribed bricks carry Buddhist sutras, the letters having been scratched on the moist clay, before it was baked. Inscribed clay seals have been obtained from Nalanda and several other ancient sites. Specimens of some inscribed ivory bars and conch-shells have been discovered. Precious metals, gold and silver have been used for engraving and casting with characters. The Buddhist Jatakas often mention the use of gold-plates for recording royal letters and grant-deeds. The Kanha Jataka states, " He (Kanha Kumar) took in his hand a golden plate, and reading upon the golden plate the lines inscribed by his kinsmen of the former days, 'so much of the property gained by such one, so much by another,' thought he ... " . A gold plate with a Kharoshthi inscription has been found in a Stupa near Taxila. Likewise, a number of inscriptions on silver have also been obtained, one among them being from the Buddhist Stupa at Bhattiprolu. Also, there are inscriptions on a large number of coins made of gold and silver. Wooden board, called phalaka, was widely used for writing in ancient India. On it characters were written with ink or chalk (pandu-lekha). Phalaka was used by the students for learning to write alphabets and also for doing elementary calculations. Later on the term pati came to represent a wooden board and the word patiganita, i.e. calculation done on a pati, came into use. Alberuni, the Central Asian savant, writes, " They (Hindus) use black tablets for the children in the schools and write upon them along the long side, not the broad side, writing with a white material from the left to the right " . Mathematical calculation was also called dhuli-karma (dust-work), because the figures were written on dust spread on wooden board or on the ground. A finger of the hand or a piece of reed was used to write on the layer of the dust. Cloth : Cotton cloth (called karpasika-pata or simply pata in Sanskrit) was also used as writing material in ancient India. Nearchos (c. 326 BC), an admiral of Alexander's fleet, has mentioned that the Indians wrote letters on well-beaten cotton cloth. Cloth was prepared for writing by putting on it a thin layer of wheat or rice pulp and polishing with a conch-shell or a smooth stone after the same was dried. Writing on the pata was done with black ink. In Rajastan, almanacs and horoscopes were prepared on scrolls of cloth. In Kerala till recently cloth was used by traders for maintenance of accounts of a permanent nature. In Karnatak a till the last century processed cloth known as kaditam was in use. It was covered with a paste of tamarind-seed and afterwards blackened with charcoal-powder. Chalk or steatite pencils were used for writing on this black cloth. At times silk cloth was also used for writing. Alberuni writes, " I have been told that the pedigree of this royal family (the shahiyas of Kabul), written on silk, exists in the fortress of Nagarkot, and I much desired to make myself acquainted with it, but the thing was impossible for various reasons " . When it became difficult to procure papyrus from Egypt, the Greeks in the second century BC developed parchment, a prepared but untanned animal skin, as a medium for writing. It was a commonly used writing material in western Asia and Europe in early and medieval times. In India, animal skin, being considered impure, was not very often used for writing. However, in some Buddhist texts, skin is mentioned among the writing materials. From a passage in Subandhu's Vasavadatta (c. 600 AD) it is possible to infer that skin (ajina in Sanskrit) was used for writing. On this point Alberuni writes, " The Hindus are not in the habit of writing on hides, like the Greeks in ancient times " . But during the Muslim period a very thin parchment called charba was used for copying, drawing, etc. Metals : Only a few inscriptions on iron have been discovered, the most famous among them being on the iron pillar at Mehrauli, near Delhi. This Sanskrit inscription in Gupta Brahmi letters of the 5th century AD consists of six lines and mentions a king whose name is 'Chandra'. In the courtyard of the Gopeswar temple of Garhwal there is the five-metre high iron Trishula which has a 7th century Sanskrit inscription incised on it. Of all the varieties of metals, copper was the most commonly used material to write on in ancient and medieval India. The copper-plates were known as tamrapata, tamrapatra or tamrashasana. Fahian (c. 400 AD) records the existence of copper-plates in the Buddhist monasteries dating back to Buddha's time. Another Chinese pilgrim, Yuan Chwang (629-45 AD), asserts that King Kanishka got the sacred books of the Buddhist faith engraved on copper-plates. One of the earliest copper-plates, the Sahgaura plate, dates back to the Mauryan period. Two methods were followed in preparing copper-plates : (1) by hammering, and then engraving; (2) by casting in a mould of sand. Most of the copper-plates have been fashioned with the hammer into the required shape and size. The contents were then written with ink and then the coppersmith or goldsmith engraved the letters or incised them with a chisel. Sometimes the letters were inscribed with a punch in the form of dotted lines. The other method of preparing a copper-plate was to cast it in a mould of sand, in which the letters and the emblems had been previously scratched with a stilus or a pointed piece of wood. These, therefore, appear on the plate in relievo. The Sahgaura plate, the oldest tamrapatra known, has been cast in a mould of sand. When the document was lengthy, more than one plate was used and held together with copper rings. For protecting the writing, the rims of the plates were usually thickened and slightly raised. The first side of the first plate and the last of the last plate were left blank. Usually the number of plates in a decree or grant varies from two to nine. Palm-leaf : Till paper was introduced in India sometime in the eleventh century, palm-leaf was one of the most important materials used for writing purposes. The palm tree, which gives palm-leaves for manuscripts, is of two types -- Shritala or talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) and Kharatala or tad or palmyra palm (Borassus Flabelliformis). The former gives leaves that are long, smooth and supple. This species of palm grows abundantly on the Malabar coast, in Bengal, Myanmar and Ceylon. The Kharatala or tad leaves, on the other hand, are thick and they have a tendency to break very easily. The fibres of the Shritala leaves are more resistant to decay than the Karatala leaves. It is because of these reasons that Shritala leaves have been preferred to Kharatal leaves for writing manuscripts. To prepare palm-leaves for writing they were first dried, boiled in water and then dried again. Then they were smoothened and polished with a stone or conch-shell. The leaves were then cut to size, which varied from 15 cms to 1 metre in length and 2 to 10 cms in breadth. In South India a pointed stilus was used to incise letters on the palm-leaf, and then lamp-black or some colour pigment was rubbed into the incised letters. The other method, followed mostly in North India, was to use pen and ink. Palm-leaves could not be bound. One or two holes were bored in the leaves and then cords were passed through them. The manuscripts were generally placed between two wooden boards and the cord passing through the holes were wrapped round the boards. In a hot and humid climate the palm-leaves can not be preserved for a very long time. Therefore, earlier palm-leave MSS of Indian origin have been obtained mostly from Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia. According to a reference in the Life of Yuan Chwang, the Buddhist Canon was written on palm-leaves at the first council held soon after the passing away of the Buddha.The oldest palm-leaf manuscript was found in Sikiang, China. It is a drama by Ashavaghosha and belongs to the second century AD. An old Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript belonging to the sixth century AD is preserved in the Horiuzi temple in Japan. Several palm-leave MSS are preserved in the Darbar Library at Kathmandu. Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayan (1894-1963) has discovered a large number of palm-leave MSS in Tibet. Numerous palm-leave MSS of 10th and later centuries have been obtained from Nepal, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Birch-bark : A very popular material for writing purposes in ancient India was birch-bark, called Bhurja-patra in Sanskrit. The birch is moderate-sized tree growing in the Himalayas at a height of nearly 14,000 feet. The inner bark of this tree was used for writing. The Greek writer of Alexander's time Q. Curtius mentions the tender inner bark of trees as serving the purpose of writing material. Kalidas in his Kumarasambhava mentions bhurja-tvak, birch-bark. Alberuni states that people in India use for writing the bark of Bhurja, a kind of tuz tree. He also records the method of preparation of Bhurja-patra : " They take a piece one yard long and as broad as the outstretched fingers of the hand, or somewhat less, and prepare it in various ways. They oil and polish it so as to make it hard and smooth, and then they write on it. The proper order of the single leaves is marked by numbers. The whole book is wrapped up in a piece of cloth and fastened between two tablets of the same size. Such a book is called Puthi. " Birch-bark leaves used to be written upon with a reed pen and specially prepared ink. Most of the birch-bark MSS have been obtained from Kashmir and Orissa. The oldest Bhurja MS is the Dhammapada in Kharoshthi script from Khotan (Sikiang) and dates back to the second century AD. Birch-bark MSS have also been obtained from Gilgit, Central Asia and some stupas in Afghanistan. The Bakshali MS deals with mathematics and the Navanitakam MS with medicine, both written on birch-bark and belonging to the 4th century AD. Agaru-bark : The bark of Agaru tree, which is called sanchipata in Assamese, has been extensively used in north-east India for writing and painting. Preparing the Agaru-bark for writing is a laborious process. Even then a large number of sanchapati MSS have been found, some of them also in foreign collections. Gunakar Muley http://www.vigyanprasar.com Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Shopping. --- End forwarded message --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2008 Report Share Posted September 5, 2008 >Panini... But we have no>definite knowledge of the writing materials used in those days. >Stone was the principal writing material in use in ancient India.>Engravings on stone, as emperor Ashoka himself expresses, are "such as>to endure for a long time". The above is not completely accurate. In arthashAstra, kauTilya dedicates a few sUtra-bhAShya-s to describe the good/bad writing materail on which to/not-to record royal deeds, treaties and other such legal documents. Material mentioned there is leaves, Bark etc. though I shall have to refer again to source to confirm the last part. By the way, kauTilya also mentions a gUDha lipi, (a secret short hand), to be used by spies and envoys to jot down short and secret messages.Best Regards Sarvesh Tiwari From: kishorepatnaik09Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 08:25:47 +0000 Fwd: Writing materials in Ancient India IndiaArchaeology , YMalaiya <ymalaiya wrote:Writing materials in Ancient IndiaToday the most common writing materials are pen and paper. Typewriterhas been in use for some 150 years. But now it is the computer-machinethat is being used more and more for writing, publishing anddisslmination. The day is not far when humans world be conversingdirectly with the computers. In the twenty-first century theresponsibility of carrying and conveying human thought will restmainly with the computers. Writing materials have played a very prominent role in the developmentof cultures. They have helped not only in preserving the history andculture of mankind, but have also deeply influenced the scripts,languages as well as man's mode of thinking. To understand ancientwriting materials, therefore, is to understand ancient cultures in abetter light. In this article I will discuss mainly Indian writingmaterials. Today paper is the main material used for writing, but its origin isnot in India. Modern paper is a Chinese invention and the word 'paper'is from Greek papyros, the tall paper-reed plant once very common inEgypt. The Hindi word Kagaja (paper) is of Persian origin. Paper ishas been used in India only for about a thousand years. Before thatthe main writing materials in our country were birch-bark, palm-leavesand copper-plates. Besides these, agaru-bark, bricks, earthenware,shell, ivory, cloth, wood, etc. had also their uses as materials forwriting. Today all the inscribed materials from the past are in thecustody of museums, both Indian and foreign. But we should always keepin mind that these ancient writing materials have served Indianliterature and science for more than two millennia. Therefore, I willfirst discuss the ancient writing materials before taking up thehistory of paper. Prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered at Bhimbetka,Pachmarhi, Adamgarh, Mirzapur and many other Indian sites. Here thepaintings, in vivid and panoramic detail, depict the day-to-day lifeof the cave-dwellers. These paintings, which can be called the earlypictorial writing, are done mostly in red and white and occasionallyin green and yellow. The colours were taken from local minerals andwere mixed with water and a fixative resin of some local tree oranimal tallow. The brushes used were made of twigs or, for fine work,quills. Along with the rock paintings short Brahmi inscriptions havealso been found at Bhimbetka and some other such sites. It is, thus,evident that in ancient India stone and natural colours were used aswriting materials for thousands of years. Indus inscriptions, usually short and numbering about 4000, are foundon a variety of objects : (1) steatite seals, (2) sealings on clay,miniature stone, terracotta or faience tablets, (3) copper tablets,(4) bronze implements, (5) bone and ivory rods, (6) pottery graffiti,and (7) miscellaneous objects, such as the unique inscription found atDholavira lying face down on the floor in front of a crumbled gate andmade of a white, crystalline material. We do not know the writingmaterial the Indus people used in their mundane affairs or forcomposing their 'books'. The Sumerians and Babylonians, contemporariesof the Indus people, used clay tablets for their cuneiform script,which scholars are able to read. But the Indus script, unfortunately,still remains undeciphered! Before the discovery of the Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500-1800BC) in 1921-22, many orientalists believed that the Vedic Indians didnot have a writing system and they transferred their scriptures fromgeneration to generation by the process of learning by heart. Thus,Max Muller says : "There is no mention of writing materials whetherpaper, bark or skin at the time when the Indian Diaskeuasts (=compilers) collected the songs of the Rishis; nor is there anyallusion to writing during the whole of the Brahmana period." Muchevidence has since been obtained to show that writing was known in theVedic period. Shatapatha Brahmana refers to the Rishi Vamadeva'obtaining the Rig-Veda hymn by seeing it'. Aitareya Brahmana says,the Rishi 'read the hymn' after he looked at it. Marking of the earsof cows (e.g.,'8-marked cows') is also mentioned in the Rig-Veda.These and several other references prove that the oral tradition wasavailable also in writing. It is, however, true that in those daysteaching was oral and study from manuscripts was not considered as theproper method of learning. In the Buddhist Jatakas there are many references to the art ofwriting. Panini (c. 500 BC) in his Ashtadyayi refers to granth (book),lipikara (writer) and Yavanani lipi (Greek script). In Panini'sgrammar writing was an essential element in the technical arrangementof his rules. Several times he asks the reader to 'see' other rules ofhis composition. It is, thus, certain that this grammatical work ofPanini was available in the form of a manuscript. But we have nodefinite knowledge of the writing materials used in those days. Stone was the principal writing material in use in ancient India.Engravings on stone, as emperor Ashoka himself expresses, are "such asto endure for a long time". Such engravings were made on rocks, slabs,smoothed or rough pillars, images, caskets, vases, etc. Stone slabs orcolumns used to be inscribed with grant-deeds, royal eulogy,proclamations, agreements between individuals or kings and even withliterary works. For example, the Kurmashataka, a poetical work inPrakrita by the scholar-king Bhoja of Dhara (Malwa) is engraved onstone slabs. Before inscribing or engraving, the stone used to be dressed bychiselling and polished by rubbing it with another stone having asmooth surface. Engraving on rough surface was not uncommon. Theletters were then written on the surface of the stone with ink or apiece of chalk or painted with brush. Finally, the engraver incisedthe letters on the inked or painted portion. Any damage in the courseof inscribing was immediately filled up with some sticky material. Putting inscriptions on stone pillars is a very old tradition. EmperorAshoka (272-232 BC) got his edicts inscribed on rocks and also onstone pillars. Made of sandstone quarried from Chunar (UP), thepillars are monolithic and highly polished. Some of the pillars are 15m high and weigh nearly 50 tons. These Ashokan pillars can be seen inDelhi, Allahabad, Lumbini and several other sites. There are also other kinds of Pillars. The Dwajastambha, which oftencarried an inscription, was erected in the courtyard of a temple. TheJayastambha carried an eulogy of a victorious king. The Kirtistambhawas erected to commemorate some pious deed. Virastambha was put up inmemory of a warrior who died fighting the enemy. The sacrificialpillar, called Yupastambha, also carried inscriptions. Bricks, Gold, Silver, Wood, etc. A large number of inscribed bricks have been unearthed from differentplaces and are preserved in archaeological museums. Some inscribedbricks are related to the Ashwamedha sacrifices performed by variouskings. Most of the early inscribed bricks carry Buddhist sutras, theletters having been scratched on the moist clay, before it was baked.Inscribed clay seals have been obtained from Nalanda and several otherancient sites. Specimens of some inscribed ivory bars and conch-shells have beendiscovered. Precious metals, gold and silver have been used forengraving and casting with characters. The Buddhist Jatakas oftenmention the use of gold-plates for recording royal letters andgrant-deeds. The Kanha Jataka states, "He (Kanha Kumar) took in hishand a golden plate, and reading upon the golden plate the linesinscribed by his kinsmen of the former days, 'so much of the propertygained by such one, so much by another,' thought he ...". A gold platewith a Kharoshthi inscription has been found in a Stupa near Taxila.Likewise, a number of inscriptions on silver have also been obtained,one among them being from the Buddhist Stupa at Bhattiprolu. Also,there are inscriptions on a large number of coins made of gold andsilver. Wooden board, called phalaka, was widely used for writing in ancientIndia. On it characters were written with ink or chalk (pandu-lekha).Phalaka was used by the students for learning to write alphabets andalso for doing elementary calculations. Later on the term pati came torepresent a wooden board and the word patiganita, i.e. calculationdone on a pati, came into use. Alberuni, the Central Asian savant,writes, "They (Hindus) use black tablets for the children in theschools and write upon them along the long side, not the broad side,writing with a white material from the left to the right".Mathematical calculation was also called dhuli-karma (dust-work),because the figures were written on dust spread on wooden board or onthe ground. A finger of the hand or a piece of reed was used to writeon the layer of the dust. Cloth : Cotton cloth (called karpasika-pata or simply pata in Sanskrit) wasalso used as writing material in ancient India. Nearchos (c. 326 BC),an admiral of Alexander's fleet, has mentioned that the Indians wroteletters on well-beaten cotton cloth. Cloth was prepared for writing byputting on it a thin layer of wheat or rice pulp and polishing with aconch-shell or a smooth stone after the same was dried. Writing on thepata was done with black ink. In Rajastan, almanacs and horoscopeswere prepared on scrolls of cloth. In Kerala till recently cloth wasused by traders for maintenance of accounts of a permanent nature. InKarnatak a till the last century processed cloth known as kaditam wasin use. It was covered with a paste of tamarind-seed and afterwardsblackened with charcoal-powder. Chalk or steatite pencils were usedfor writing on this black cloth. At times silk cloth was also used for writing. Alberuni writes, "Ihave been told that the pedigree of this royal family (the shahiyas ofKabul), written on silk, exists in the fortress of Nagarkot, and Imuch desired to make myself acquainted with it, but the thing wasimpossible for various reasons". When it became difficult to procure papyrus from Egypt, the Greeks inthe second century BC developed parchment, a prepared but untannedanimal skin, as a medium for writing. It was a commonly used writingmaterial in western Asia and Europe in early and medieval times. InIndia, animal skin, being considered impure, was not very often usedfor writing. However, in some Buddhist texts, skin is mentioned amongthe writing materials. From a passage in Subandhu's Vasavadatta (c.600 AD) it is possible to infer that skin (ajina in Sanskrit) was usedfor writing. On this point Alberuni writes, "The Hindus are not in thehabit of writing on hides, like the Greeks in ancient times". Butduring the Muslim period a very thin parchment called charba was usedfor copying, drawing, etc. Metals : Only a few inscriptions on iron have been discovered, the most famousamong them being on the iron pillar at Mehrauli, near Delhi. ThisSanskrit inscription in Gupta Brahmi letters of the 5th century ADconsists of six lines and mentions a king whose name is 'Chandra'. Inthe courtyard of the Gopeswar temple of Garhwal there is thefive-metre high iron Trishula which has a 7th century Sanskritinscription incised on it. Of all the varieties of metals, copper was the most commonly usedmaterial to write on in ancient and medieval India. The copper-plateswere known as tamrapata, tamrapatra or tamrashasana. Fahian (c. 400AD) records the existence of copper-plates in the Buddhist monasteriesdating back to Buddha's time. Another Chinese pilgrim, Yuan Chwang(629-45 AD), asserts that King Kanishka got the sacred books of theBuddhist faith engraved on copper-plates. One of the earliestcopper-plates, the Sahgaura plate, dates back to the Mauryan period. Two methods were followed in preparing copper-plates : (1) byhammering, and then engraving; (2) by casting in a mould of sand. Mostof the copper-plates have been fashioned with the hammer into therequired shape and size. The contents were then written with ink andthen the coppersmith or goldsmith engraved the letters or incised themwith a chisel. Sometimes the letters were inscribed with a punch inthe form of dotted lines. The other method of preparing a copper-plate was to cast it in a mouldof sand, in which the letters and the emblems had been previouslyscratched with a stilus or a pointed piece of wood. These, therefore,appear on the plate in relievo. The Sahgaura plate, the oldesttamrapatra known, has been cast in a mould of sand. When the document was lengthy, more than one plate was used and heldtogether with copper rings. For protecting the writing, the rims ofthe plates were usually thickened and slightly raised. The first sideof the first plate and the last of the last plate were left blank.Usually the number of plates in a decree or grant varies from two tonine. Palm-leaf : Till paper was introduced in India sometime in the eleventh century,palm-leaf was one of the most important materials used for writingpurposes. The palm tree, which gives palm-leaves for manuscripts, isof two types -- Shritala or talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) andKharatala or tad or palmyra palm (Borassus Flabelliformis). The formergives leaves that are long, smooth and supple. This species of palmgrows abundantly on the Malabar coast, in Bengal, Myanmar and Ceylon.The Kharatala or tad leaves, on the other hand, are thick and theyhave a tendency to break very easily. The fibres of the Shritalaleaves are more resistant to decay than the Karatala leaves. It isbecause of these reasons that Shritala leaves have been preferred toKharatal leaves for writing manuscripts. To prepare palm-leaves for writing they were first dried, boiled inwater and then dried again. Then they were smoothened and polishedwith a stone or conch-shell. The leaves were then cut to size, whichvaried from 15 cms to 1 metre in length and 2 to 10 cms in breadth. InSouth India a pointed stilus was used to incise letters on thepalm-leaf, and then lamp-black or some colour pigment was rubbed intothe incised letters. The other method, followed mostly in North India,was to use pen and ink. Palm-leaves could not be bound. One or twoholes were bored in the leaves and then cords were passed throughthem. The manuscripts were generally placed between two wooden boardsand the cord passing through the holes were wrapped round the boards. In a hot and humid climate the palm-leaves can not be preserved for avery long time. Therefore, earlier palm-leave MSS of Indian originhave been obtained mostly from Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia.According to a reference in the Life of Yuan Chwang, the BuddhistCanon was written on palm-leaves at the first council held soon afterthe passing away of the Buddha.The oldest palm-leaf manuscript wasfound in Sikiang, China. It is a drama by Ashavaghosha and belongs tothe second century AD. An old Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript belongingto the sixth century AD is preserved in the Horiuzi temple in Japan.Several palm-leave MSS are preserved in the Darbar Library atKathmandu. Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayan (1894-1963) has discovered alarge number of palm-leave MSS in Tibet. Numerous palm-leave MSS of10th and later centuries have been obtained from Nepal, Rajasthan andGujarat. Birch-bark : A very popular material for writing purposes in ancient India wasbirch-bark, called Bhurja-patra in Sanskrit. The birch ismoderate-sized tree growing in the Himalayas at a height of nearly14,000 feet. The inner bark of this tree was used for writing. TheGreek writer of Alexander's time Q. Curtius mentions the tender innerbark of trees as serving the purpose of writing material. Kalidas inhis Kumarasambhava mentions bhurja-tvak, birch-bark. Alberuni statesthat people in India use for writing the bark of Bhurja, a kind of tuztree. He also records the method of preparation of Bhurja-patra :"They take a piece one yard long and as broad as the outstretchedfingers of the hand, or somewhat less, and prepare it in various ways.They oil and polish it so as to make it hard and smooth, and then theywrite on it. The proper order of the single leaves is marked bynumbers. The whole book is wrapped up in a piece of cloth and fastenedbetween two tablets of the same size. Such a book is called Puthi."Birch-bark leaves used to be written upon with a reed pen andspecially prepared ink. Most of the birch-bark MSS have been obtained from Kashmir and Orissa.The oldest Bhurja MS is the Dhammapada in Kharoshthi script fromKhotan (Sikiang) and dates back to the second century AD. Birch-barkMSS have also been obtained from Gilgit, Central Asia and some stupasin Afghanistan. The Bakshali MS deals with mathematics and theNavanitakam MS with medicine, both written on birch-bark and belongingto the 4th century AD. Agaru-bark : The bark of Agaru tree, which is called sanchipata in Assamese, hasbeen extensively used in north-east India for writing and painting.Preparing the Agaru-bark for writing is a laborious process. Even thena large number of sanchapati MSS have been found, some of them also inforeign collections. Gunakar Muley http://www.vigyanprasar.comDo You ?Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Shopping.--- End forwarded message --- Watch useful tips on recipes, fitness, yoga and fashion only on MSN videos. Try it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 The Ashtadhyayi of Paanini is arranged specifically for the oral instructions and that too for those whose language was Sankr^ita. The Sidhanta Kamudi of Bhattoji Dixshita, which is rearrangement of the Ashtadhyayi, was written precisely because Ashtadhyayi would not be easy for a populace which does not speak Sanskrita well. Ravindra , Sarvesh Tiwari <sarveshtiwari wrote: > > > >Panini... But we have no>definite knowledge of the writing materials used in those days. >Stone was the principal writing material in use in ancient India.>Engravings on stone, as emperor Ashoka himself expresses, are " such as>to endure for a long time " . > > The above is not completely accurate. In arthashAstra, kauTilya dedicates a few sUtra-bhAShya-s to describe the good/bad writing materail on which to/not-to record royal deeds, treaties and other such legal documents. Material mentioned there is leaves, Bark etc. though I shall have to refer again to source to confirm the last part. By the way, kauTilya also mentions a gUDha lipi, (a secret short hand), to be used by spies and envoys to jot down short and secret messages.Best Regards > Sarvesh Tiwari > > > > : kishorepatnaik09: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 08:25:47 +0000 Fwd: Writing materials in Ancient India > > > > > IndiaArchaeology , YMalaiya <ymalaiya@> wrote:Writing materials in Ancient IndiaToday the most common writing materials are pen and paper. Typewriterhas been in use for some 150 years. But now it is the computer-machinethat is being used more and more for writing, publishing anddisslmination. The day is not far when humans world be conversingdirectly with the computers. In the twenty-first century theresponsibility of carrying and conveying human thought will restmainly with the computers. Writing materials have played a very prominent role in the developmentof cultures. They have helped not only in preserving the history andculture of mankind, but have also deeply influenced the scripts,languages as well as man's mode of thinking. To understand ancientwriting materials, therefore, is to understand ancient cultures in abetter light. In this article I will discuss mainly Indian writingmaterials. Today paper is the main material used for writing, but its origin isnot in India. Modern paper is a Chinese invention and the word 'paper'is from Greek papyros, the tall paper- reed plant once very common inEgypt. The Hindi word Kagaja (paper) is of Persian origin. Paper ishas been used in India only for about a thousand years. Before thatthe main writing materials in our country were birch-bark, palm-leavesand copper-plates. Besides these, agaru-bark, bricks, earthenware,shell, ivory, cloth, wood, etc. had also their uses as materials forwriting. Today all the inscribed materials from the past are in thecustody of museums, both Indian and foreign. But we should always keepin mind that these ancient writing materials have served Indianliterature and science for more than two millennia. Therefore, I willfirst discuss the ancient writing materials before taking up thehistory of paper. Prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered at Bhimbetka,Pachmarhi, Adamgarh, Mirzapur and many other Indian sites. Here thepaintings, in vivid and panoramic detail, depict the day-to- day lifeof the cave-dwellers. These paintings, which can be called the earlypictorial writing, are done mostly in red and white and occasionallyin green and yellow. The colours were taken from local minerals andwere mixed with water and a fixative resin of some local tree oranimal tallow. The brushes used were made of twigs or, for fine work,quills. Along with the rock paintings short Brahmi inscriptions havealso been found at Bhimbetka and some other such sites. It is, thus,evident that in ancient India stone and natural colours were used aswriting materials for thousands of years. Indus inscriptions, usually short and numbering about 4000, are foundon a variety of objects : (1) steatite seals, (2) sealings on clay,miniature stone, terracotta or faience tablets, (3) copper tablets,(4) bronze implements, (5) bone and ivory rods, (6) pottery graffiti,and (7) miscellaneous objects, such as the unique inscription found atDholavira lying face down on the floor in front of a crumbled gate andmade of a white, crystalline material. We do not know the writingmaterial the Indus people used in their mundane affairs or forcomposing their 'books'. The Sumerians and Babylonians, contemporariesof the Indus people, used clay tablets for their cuneiform script,which scholars are able to read. But the Indus script, unfortunately,still remains undeciphered! Before the discovery of the Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500-1800BC) in 1921- 22, many orientalists believed that the Vedic Indians didnot have a writing system and they transferred their scriptures fromgeneration to generation by the process of learning by heart. Thus,Max Muller says : " There is no mention of writing materials whetherpaper, bark or skin at the time when the Indian Diaskeuasts (=compilers) collected the songs of the Rishis; nor is there anyallusion to writing during the whole of the Brahmana period. " Muchevidence has since been obtained to show that writing was known in theVedic period. Shatapatha Brahmana refers to the Rishi Vamadeva'obtaining the Rig-Veda hymn by seeing it'. Aitareya Brahmana says,the Rishi 'read the hymn' after he looked at it. Marking of the earsof cows (e.g.,'8-marked cows') is also mentioned in the Rig-Veda.These and several other references prove that the oral tradition wasavailable also in writing. It is, however, true that in those daysteaching was oral and study from manuscripts was not considered as theproper method of learning. In the Buddhist Jatakas there are many references to the art ofwriting. Panini (c. 500 BC) in his Ashtadyayi refers to granth (book),lipikara (writer) and Yavanani lipi (Greek script). In Panini'sgrammar writing was an essential element in the technical arrangementof his rules. Several times he asks the reader to 'see' other rules ofhis composition. It is, thus, certain that this grammatical work ofPanini was available in the form of a manuscript. But we have nodefinite knowledge of the writing materials used in those days. Stone was the principal writing material in use in ancient India.Engravings on stone, as emperor Ashoka himself expresses, are " such asto endure for a long time " . Such engravings were made on rocks, slabs,smoothed or rough pillars, images, caskets, vases, etc. Stone slabs orcolumns used to be inscribed with grant-deeds, royal eulogy,proclamations, agreements between individuals or kings and even withliterary works. For example, the Kurmashataka, a poetical work inPrakrita by the scholar-king Bhoja of Dhara (Malwa) is engraved onstone slabs. Before inscribing or engraving, the stone used to be dressed bychiselling and polished by rubbing it with another stone having asmooth surface. Engraving on rough surface was not uncommon. Theletters were then written on the surface of the stone with ink or apiece of chalk or painted with brush. Finally, the engraver incisedthe letters on the inked or painted portion. Any damage in the courseof inscribing was immediately filled up with some sticky material. Putting inscriptions on stone pillars is a very old tradition. EmperorAshoka (272-232 BC) got his edicts inscribed on rocks and also onstone pillars. Made of sandstone quarried from Chunar (UP), thepillars are monolithic and highly polished. Some of the pillars are 15m high and weigh nearly 50 tons. These Ashokan pillars can be seen inDelhi, Allahabad, Lumbini and several other sites. There are also other kinds of Pillars. The Dwajastambha, which oftencarried an inscription, was erected in the courtyard of a temple. TheJayastambha carried an eulogy of a victorious king. The Kirtistambhawas erected to commemorate some pious deed. Virastambha was put up inmemory of a warrior who died fighting the enemy. The sacrificialpillar, called Yupastambha, also carried inscriptions. Bricks, Gold, Silver, Wood, etc. A large number of inscribed bricks have been unearthed from differentplaces and are preserved in archaeological museums. Some inscribedbricks are related to the Ashwamedha sacrifices performed by variouskings. Most of the early inscribed bricks carry Buddhist sutras, theletters having been scratched on the moist clay, before it was baked.Inscribed clay seals have been obtained from Nalanda and several otherancient sites. Specimens of some inscribed ivory bars and conch-shells have beendiscovered. Precious metals, gold and silver have been used forengraving and casting with characters. The Buddhist Jatakas oftenmention the use of gold-plates for recording royal letters andgrant-deeds. The Kanha Jataka states, " He (Kanha Kumar) took in hishand a golden plate, and reading upon the golden plate the linesinscribed by his kinsmen of the former days, 'so much of the propertygained by such one, so much by another,' thought he ... " . A gold platewith a Kharoshthi inscription has been found in a Stupa near Taxila.Likewise, a number of inscriptions on silver have also been obtained,one among them being from the Buddhist Stupa at Bhattiprolu. Also,there are inscriptions on a large number of coins made of gold andsilver. Wooden board, called phalaka, was widely used for writing in ancientIndia. On it characters were written with ink or chalk (pandu-lekha).Phalaka was used by the students for learning to write alphabets andalso for doing elementary calculations. Later on the term pati came torepresent a wooden board and the word patiganita, i.e. calculationdone on a pati, came into use. Alberuni, the Central Asian savant,writes, " They (Hindus) use black tablets for the children in theschools and write upon them along the long side, not the broad side,writing with a white material from the left to the right " .Mathematical calculation was also called dhuli-karma (dust-work),because the figures were written on dust spread on wooden board or onthe ground. A finger of the hand or a piece of reed was used to writeon the layer of the dust. Cloth : Cotton cloth (called karpasika-pata or simply pata in Sanskrit) wasalso used as writing material in ancient India. Nearchos (c. 326 BC),an admiral of Alexander's fleet, has mentioned that the Indians wroteletters on well-beaten cotton cloth. Cloth was prepared for writing byputting on it a thin layer of wheat or rice pulp and polishing with aconch-shell or a smooth stone after the same was dried. Writing on thepata was done with black ink. In Rajastan, almanacs and horoscopeswere prepared on scrolls of cloth. In Kerala till recently cloth wasused by traders for maintenance of accounts of a permanent nature. InKarnatak a till the last century processed cloth known as kaditam wasin use. It was covered with a paste of tamarind-seed and afterwardsblackened with charcoal-powder. Chalk or steatite pencils were usedfor writing on this black cloth. At times silk cloth was also used for writing. Alberuni writes, " Ihave been told that the pedigree of this royal family (the shahiyas ofKabul), written on silk, exists in the fortress of Nagarkot, and Imuch desired to make myself acquainted with it, but the thing wasimpossible for various reasons " . When it became difficult to procure papyrus from Egypt, the Greeks inthe second century BC developed parchment, a prepared but untannedanimal skin, as a medium for writing. It was a commonly used writingmaterial in western Asia and Europe in early and medieval times. InIndia, animal skin, being considered impure, was not very often usedfor writing. However, in some Buddhist texts, skin is mentioned amongthe writing materials. From a passage in Subandhu's Vasavadatta (c.600 AD) it is possible to infer that skin (ajina in Sanskrit) was usedfor writing. On this point Alberuni writes, " The Hindus are not in thehabit of writing on hides, like the Greeks in ancient times " . Butduring the Muslim period a very thin parchment called charba was usedfor copying, drawing, etc. Metals : Only a few inscriptions on iron have been discovered, the most famousamong them being on the iron pillar at Mehrauli, near Delhi. ThisSanskrit inscription in Gupta Brahmi letters of the 5th century ADconsists of six lines and mentions a king whose name is 'Chandra'. Inthe courtyard of the Gopeswar temple of Garhwal there is thefive-metre high iron Trishula which has a 7th century Sanskritinscription incised on it. Of all the varieties of metals, copper was the most commonly usedmaterial to write on in ancient and medieval India. The copper-plateswere known as tamrapata, tamrapatra or tamrashasana. Fahian (c. 400AD) records the existence of copper-plates in the Buddhist monasteriesdating back to Buddha's time. Another Chinese pilgrim, Yuan Chwang(629-45 AD), asserts that King Kanishka got the sacred books of theBuddhist faith engraved on copper-plates. One of the earliestcopper-plates, the Sahgaura plate, dates back to the Mauryan period. Two methods were followed in preparing copper-plates : (1) byhammering, and then engraving; (2) by casting in a mould of sand. Mostof the copper- plates have been fashioned with the hammer into therequired shape and size. The contents were then written with ink andthen the coppersmith or goldsmith engraved the letters or incised themwith a chisel. Sometimes the letters were inscribed with a punch inthe form of dotted lines. The other method of preparing a copper-plate was to cast it in a mouldof sand, in which the letters and the emblems had been previouslyscratched with a stilus or a pointed piece of wood. These, therefore,appear on the plate in relievo. The Sahgaura plate, the oldesttamrapatra known, has been cast in a mould of sand. When the document was lengthy, more than one plate was used and heldtogether with copper rings. For protecting the writing, the rims ofthe plates were usually thickened and slightly raised. The first sideof the first plate and the last of the last plate were left blank.Usually the number of plates in a decree or grant varies from two tonine. Palm-leaf : Till paper was introduced in India sometime in the eleventh century,palm-leaf was one of the most important materials used for writingpurposes. The palm tree, which gives palm- leaves for manuscripts, isof two types -- Shritala or talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) andKharatala or tad or palmyra palm (Borassus Flabelliformis). The formergives leaves that are long, smooth and supple. This species of palmgrows abundantly on the Malabar coast, in Bengal, Myanmar and Ceylon.The Kharatala or tad leaves, on the other hand, are thick and theyhave a tendency to break very easily. The fibres of the Shritalaleaves are more resistant to decay than the Karatala leaves. It isbecause of these reasons that Shritala leaves have been preferred toKharatal leaves for writing manuscripts. To prepare palm-leaves for writing they were first dried, boiled inwater and then dried again. Then they were smoothened and polishedwith a stone or conch-shell. The leaves were then cut to size, whichvaried from 15 cms to 1 metre in length and 2 to 10 cms in breadth. InSouth India a pointed stilus was used to incise letters on thepalm-leaf, and then lamp-black or some colour pigment was rubbed intothe incised letters. The other method, followed mostly in North India,was to use pen and ink. Palm-leaves could not be bound. One or twoholes were bored in the leaves and then cords were passed throughthem. The manuscripts were generally placed between two wooden boardsand the cord passing through the holes were wrapped round the boards. In a hot and humid climate the palm-leaves can not be preserved for avery long time. Therefore, earlier palm-leave MSS of Indian originhave been obtained mostly from Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia.According to a reference in the Life of Yuan Chwang, the BuddhistCanon was written on palm-leaves at the first council held soon afterthe passing away of the Buddha.The oldest palm-leaf manuscript wasfound in Sikiang, China. It is a drama by Ashavaghosha and belongs tothe second century AD. An old Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript belongingto the sixth century AD is preserved in the Horiuzi temple in Japan.Several palm-leave MSS are preserved in the Darbar Library atKathmandu. Mahapandita Rahul Sankrityayan (1894-1963) has discovered alarge number of palm-leave MSS in Tibet. Numerous palm-leave MSS of10th and later centuries have been obtained from Nepal, Rajasthan andGujarat. Birch-bark : A very popular material for writing purposes in ancient India wasbirch- bark, called Bhurja-patra in Sanskrit. The birch ismoderate-sized tree growing in the Himalayas at a height of nearly14,000 feet. The inner bark of this tree was used for writing. TheGreek writer of Alexander's time Q. Curtius mentions the tender innerbark of trees as serving the purpose of writing material. Kalidas inhis Kumarasambhava mentions bhurja-tvak, birch-bark. Alberuni statesthat people in India use for writing the bark of Bhurja, a kind of tuztree. He also records the method of preparation of Bhurja- patra : " They take a piece one yard long and as broad as the outstretchedfingers of the hand, or somewhat less, and prepare it in various ways.They oil and polish it so as to make it hard and smooth, and then theywrite on it. The proper order of the single leaves is marked bynumbers. The whole book is wrapped up in a piece of cloth and fastenedbetween two tablets of the same size. Such a book is called Puthi. " Birch-bark leaves used to be written upon with a reed pen andspecially prepared ink. Most of the birch-bark MSS have been obtained from Kashmir and Orissa.The oldest Bhurja MS is the Dhammapada in Kharoshthi script fromKhotan (Sikiang) and dates back to the second century AD. Birch-barkMSS have also been obtained from Gilgit, Central Asia and some stupasin Afghanistan. The Bakshali MS deals with mathematics and theNavanitakam MS with medicine, both written on birch-bark and belongingto the 4th century AD. Agaru-bark : The bark of Agaru tree, which is called sanchipata in Assamese, hasbeen extensively used in north-east India for writing and painting.Preparing the Agaru-bark for writing is a laborious process. Even thena large number of sanchapati MSS have been found, some of them also inforeign collections. Gunakar Muley http://www.vigyanprasar.comDo You ?Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Shopping.--- End forwarded message --- > > > > > > _______________ > Searching for the best deals on travel? Visit MSN Travel. > http://in.msn.com/coxandkings > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.