Palm Leaf Manuscripts

Palm leaf manuscripts were in common use throughout Southern Asia for many centuries. The practice of making these books (depictions of which exist from as early as the seventh century C.E.) continued even with the introduction of paper into Southern Asia around the eleventh century: long before paper was known in the West. Paper and palm leaves co-existed as writing supports until the nineteenth century, when the practice of using palm leaf manuscripts declined. The two most common varieties of palm trees whose leaves are used for these manuscripts are the Palmyra palm and the Talipot palm. In different regions, palm leaves are prepared for use as a writing surface in a variety of different ways, which can include boiling, exposing to heat and / or moisture, polishing and coating before being cut to a uniform size and having holes pierced in them for binding. Text is either written on to the surface of the prepared palm leaf or, as in this instance, incised into it using a stylus. The incised leaf is then coated with a charcoal based paste which fills the grooves incised by the stylus, making the text easier to read.

The finished palm leaves are bundled together and a cord threaded through the holes and knotted. Decorated boards of wood or, occasionally, ivory, serve as protective covers for the manuscript.

Given their organic nature, palm leaf manuscripts are susceptible to decay: scribes have been recopying aging manuscripts for centuries in order to preserve the transmission of their contents.

The precise provenance of the QUB palm leaf manuscript featured in this exhibition is uncertain, but the manuscript contains a copy of Guṇṇantarac nisya by Shin Sāravaṃsa, and is written in Pali (Burmese round script) and Burmese.

Relates to:

Uncatalogued Material: Palm Leaf MSS