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Show ParT The Early Whiting Material EFORE theadventof| paper themost common substance usedin Indi as a surface for writing was the thin whit bark of trees; in the sam manner the American aborigines inscribed their picture writings upon birc bak. It is also recorded that as early as the fourth century s. c. the Hindu employed prepared cotton cloth as material for the writing of letters an documents. The cloth is thought to have been covered with a paste mad from tamarind seeds (Tamarindus indica) (Hindi: imli) and blackened wit charcoal, then written upon with a white or yellow pigment The Roman historian, Quintus Curtius, recorded that at the time of th invasion of India by Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia (p. c. 356323), the bark of trees was in common use among Indian scholars as writin material. This ancient historian no doubt referred to the inner bark o the Indian birch tree (bhgj-patr); which grows abundantly in the snow regions of the Himalaya mountains. At the present time this same bark i used for the inseription of charms, and is also employed in much large quantities in the manufacture of the hukka, the tobacco pipe much cherishe in India. In ancient times in north India the use of this bark was so wide spread among Buddhists and Hindus that the material acquired the nam lekhan, meaning writing or scripture; a writer or an accountant was know as a lekhak, and a pen or writing stylus was termed a lekhani. The bark, i strips as long as forty inches and as broad as nine inches, was prepared fo use by coating with oil and then giving it a polish. The use of birch bark as writing material spread rapidly over India until its use was almost universal pparently the oldest documents on bark that have been discovered ar those from Khotan, and those found in the Buddhist stupas, or topa, o Afghanistan. These manuscripts date from the fourth century third century A.p. and are inscribed in an obsolete script. I‘he carl\cs [o Digital Image© 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah. All rights reserved |