1900.] A. F. R. Hoernle — EpigrapMcal Note on Palm-leaf ^ etc. 
93 
An Epigraphical Note on Palm-leaf, Paper and Birch-harJc. — By 
A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, Ph.D., C.I.E. 
[ Read May, 1898. ] ' 
In his admirable summary of Indian Palaeography which forms a 
part of the Encyclopaedia of Indo-Aryan Research, the late Professor 
Biihler says (I translate from the German) that “ it cannot he doubted 
but that the two large-leaved palms, the tddatdla (Borassus flabelH- 
formis) and the tdditdli (Corypha umbraculifera, C. taliera) which 
probably were originally indigenous in South-India, but have now 
spread into the Panjab, are those the leaves of which were principally 
employed” in India as writing-material (see § 37, C.). This state- 
ment, which merely repeats a general, oft-repeated opinion, is not quite 
accurate and therefore apt to mislead. It conveys the impression as if 
the leaves of those two palms had been used contemporaneously -and 
indifferently throughout India. This is not correct. In preparing the 
introduction to my edition of the Bower Manuscript, I had occasion 
to specially enquire into this point. In the result I found (1) that 
up to a certain point of time, Corypha umbr. was the only palm, the 
leaves of which were used throughout India, and (2) that the use of 
the leaves of Borassus fl. commenced at a comparatively late period, 
and was, and is still, limited to the South and East of India. In the 
sequel I will try to show this. There are some minor inaccuracies 
in the above-quoted statement, which the following explanation will also 
set right. 
The two Indian palms, which alone come into question in this 
connection, are (1) the (true) Talipat palm, Coi'ypha umbraculifera, 
also G. Taliera; and (2) the Palmyra palm or Tarigach, Borassus 
flabellifer.^ 
1 In Bengal the Corypha umbr. is called Tedel, while the Borassus jl. is called 
Tdl, and the proportion of the two palms is about 1 : 1000. The correct name of 
the Borassus, as Dr. Praiu, the Superintendent of the Boyal Botanic Gardens in 
Sibpur, informs me, is not flab elliformis, as usually given, hut fiabellifer, this being 
the name given to the palm by Linnaeus who first determined it. There is every 
J. I. 13 
