Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PROLEGOMENA
Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler. This covered nearly the whole
of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa,
West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the
Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and
China in the East. After his travel he returned to Morocco and gave his
account of the experience over a period of thirty years, to Ibn Juzay,
which were published in the Rihla (lit. "Journey").
Leaves ( Tal Patra) also used for writing. The two circular or
other blank holes in the palm leaves were used for running
thread that bound palm leaves together, from which the
name probably Granth, the treatise ( Granthana means
putting together in a thread) came. But Tamil Language was
called Granth in those days.
The confusion arises if Indian ink was and Bhurja- Patra and
Tal Patra were possibly invented prior to Asoka Regime, then
where those written manuscripts( Punthi) vanished?
Rock edicts of Asoka Regime were first uncovered by
Alexander Cunningham in November 1861. Cunningham
wrote Reports ( 23 volumes) read out bilingual inscription
on early coins ( Greco Brahmi and Greco Kharosti) and
followed by the numismatist, epigraphists and
palaeographists like James Princep, Lassen, Norris, Buhler,
Konow and many others.
The punthis were not in sight. The punthis were sincerely
copied and sacredly preserved by the Gurus of Sanskrit
schools (Tols) and their disciples also. Preservation was a
difficult task due to rains and worms. There were thefts of
punthis and plagiarism too. Punthis were found by a task
force formed by the British Government in Europe, Middle
East, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Far estern countries like
Japan and Indonesia.
Theodore Aufrecht compiled Catalogus Catalogum of the
Pali, Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts taken up to 1903
which was taken for revised edition in 1935 and the first
volume of New Catalogus Catalogum was published in
1949. Haraprasad Sashtri of Calcutta University, wrote
Catalogue of Palm leaf and select Paper Manuscripts
belonging to Durbar Library(Nepal 1905).
D C Sircar, Former Government Epigraphist of India ,
observed : The study of Indian inscriptions practically
started on the 15th January, 1784, by the British and other
European scholars, administrators and Missionaries for an
enquiry into the history and antiquities, Arts, Sciences and
literatures of asis in general and India in particular. At that
time no Indian pundit was able to read the ancient Brahmi
and Kharosti writings although the most learned among
The proto-languages stand at the branch points, or nodes: 15, 6, 20 and 7. The
leaf languages, or end points, are 2, 5, 9 and 31. The root language is 15. The
links between nodes indicate descent or genetic descent. All the languages in
the tree are related.