1859.] On the Introduction of Writing into India. 155 



preserved by oral tradition only, but I should feel inclined to claim 

 an acquaintance with the art of writing for the authors of the 

 Sutras. And there is one word which seems to strengthen such a 

 supposition. We find that several of the Sutras are divided into 

 chapters called patalas. This is a word never used for the sub- 

 divisions of the Brahmanas. Its meaning is a covering, the sur- 

 rounding skin or membrane ; it is also used for a tree. If so, it 

 would seem to be almost synonymous with liber and fiufiXos and it 

 would mean a booh, after meaning originally a sheet of paper made 

 of the surrounding bark of trees. If writing came in towards the 

 latter half of the Sutra period, it would no doubt be applied at the 

 same time to reducing the hymns and Brahmanas to a written form. 

 Previous to that time, however, we are bound to admit that the 

 collection of the hymns, and the immense mass of the Brahmana 

 literature, were preserved by means of oral tradition only. 



