Palm leaf manuscript
Palm leaf manuscripts were used instead of paper to record and preserve thoughts, knowledge and mythical narratives in Ancient India, using dried leaves from the Palmyra palm or talipot palm.
For a long time palm-leaf was our paper, nature's paper which was not easily damaged. The letters had to be inscribed on it with a stylus. Given the recognised intellectual vitality of the Indian culture and its high regard for inherited knowledge, it is no surprise that a vast corpus of these palm-leaf manuscripts accumulated over the centuries until the appearance of the printing press which rendered palm-leaf manuscript transcription obsolete, Indian rajahs, temple authorities, and other concerned individuals ensured that the oldest (and hence most valued) manuscripts were ritually disposed only after they had been copied onto new palm-leaves.
When this age-old cycle was broken in the 19th century, the remaining corpus of palm-leaf manuscripts and the knowledge contained in them began a long slide into obscurity and destruction. With the tradition of the scribe fast dying and with no new system of recording their contents, not only have vast quantities of these manuscripts disappeared forever, but even the very ability to read the archaic palm-leaf script, called Grantha, today survives only among specially-trained scholars.
A recent tentative survey by the Institute of Asian Studies, Madras, indicates that there are still about a hundred thousand palm-leaf manuscripts surviving in South Indian repositories alone, with thousands more scattered across the subcontinent and overseas. But most of these palm-leaves are approaching the end of their natural lifetime and are facing imminent destruction from dampness, fungus, white ants, cockroaches and - not least of all - disposal by villagers whose actions are dictated less by reverence than by superstition.
The existing palm-leaf manuscripts in Tamil on traditional science cover the following areas:
- Indigenous medicine
- Siddha
- Ayurveda
- Yunani systems
- Human anatomy (Varmam, surgery)
- Veterinary science (Vakatam)
- Agriculture (Kuvam, Karanul)
- Traditional art and architecture:
- Temple art and architecture
- Shipbuilding
- Carpentry
- Metalworking
- Sculpture
- Traditional musicology
- Techniques of writing
- Astrology & astronomy
- Yoga
- Animal husbandry
- Martial arts
- Physiognomy (Samudria Laksanam)
External links
- http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part14/chap20.htm
- Sanskrit manuscript goes digital Priceless collection of 36 erudite commentaries written in Sanskrit by Sri Madvacharya (1238-1317 AD) - BBC News 17 November 2006
Categories
Manuscripts