68 Babu Rajendralal — Report on Sanskrit MSS. [Makch' 



in gum-water, and when it is dry to write over it. Omissions of entire 

 words and sentences of course cannot be rectified in this way, and they 

 have therefore to be supplied by writing on the margin. Interlineation is 

 generally avoided ; but in old MSS. which have been read and revised by 

 several generations, they are not altogether wanting. In commentaries, 

 the quotations from texts are generally smeared over with a little red ochre, 

 which produce the same effect which red letters in European MSS. were 

 intended to subserve, and whence the term rubric got into currency. These 

 peculiarities, however, are more prominent in the MSS. of the North 

 Western Provinces than in those of Bengal, and in palm-leaf codices they 

 are generally wanting, except in Burmah where some sacred Pali works are 

 written with a thick black varnish on palm-leaves throughout richly gilt 

 and wrought over with scrolls and other ornaments. Ordinary Burmese 

 MSS. have the edges of the leaves painted and sometimes gilt. 



Illustrations. — 12. Illustrations are almost unknown in Bengal ; but 

 in Orissa they are frequently employed. The most noted place, however, 

 for illustrations is Kas'mir, and the finest and richest MSS. are usually 

 produced in that province, the illuminations consisting of flowery initials, 

 grotesque cyphers, single figures, historical compositions, marginal lines, 

 and scroll borders ; most of the illustrations are in the Moorish style. 



Size fyc. of Paper MSS. — 13. The size of paper MSS. varies from 

 eight to twenty inches, by four to eight inches. The paper is folded so as to 

 mark the margins and regulate the straightness of the lines. In the North 

 Western Provinces, the paper is sometimes so folded as to retain two leaves 

 together, but in Bengal it is always cut into separate and distinct folia. 

 Sometimes a board mounted with strong thread tied at equal distances is 

 used for a ruler. The paper is laid flat on this board, and then pressed hard 

 with a ball of cloth whereby it receives an impression of the threads on its 

 surface, and these impressions look very like water-lines. The leaves are 

 written over lengthwise, leaving a uniform margin all round. The words 

 are generally, but not always, separated by small spaces, and for punctua- 

 tion the upright stroke or ddndi is freely used. No breaks are made to 

 indicate the ends of paragraphs or sections, and should the writing at the 

 end of a work terminate in the middle of a line, the line is filled up by wri- 

 ting the letter sri, or stars, or the name of some god several times until the 

 line is completed, so that all the lines may be of uniform length. In the 

 case of codices which contain both a text and a commentary, the text is 

 written in large letters on the middle, and the commentary above and below 

 it in smaller letters. This arrangement is called the trivalli form, and some 

 tact is necessary in engrossing such writing, so that all the commentary on 

 the given text may be comprised on the same page. The copyist's name is 

 frequently given at the end, and also the date in S'aka or Samvat, rarely in 



