112 A. F. R. Hoernle — Epigraphical Note an Palm-leafy etc. [No. 2, 
in the list of Table III, 127 manuscripts, dating before 1675 A.D. 
Of these 127 manuscripts, 104 measure If inches or upwards in width. 
All these must be written on Corypba leaves ; for I have already- 
shown that no Borassus leaf admits of that width. Practically the 
same remark applies to No. 36, which measures If inches. There remain 
22 manuscripts, measuring less than If inches in width. Of these, 18 
have a width of If inches.^® There is very little probability of any 
of them being a Corypha manuscript : in fact, in the case of No. 67, 
the fact that it is written on Corypha leaves has been verified for me by 
Professor Cowell; and as to 6 others, viz.y Nos. 101, 110, 112, 122, 125 
and 127, which are Bihar manuscripts, I shall show presently that in 
Bihar none but Corypha leaves were used down to a far more recent 
date than 1675 A.D. Of the remaining 4 manuscripts. No. 89, which is 
If inches wide, cannot be Borassus, because of its length of 34f inches ; 
nor are Nos. 5, 8 and 10, which are If and 1 inches wide respectively, 
likely to be Borassus, on account of their great age : that exceptionally 
Corypha manuscripts of such very small width are met with, I have 
already shown (see Nos. 35 and 55 in Table I, and No. 5 in Table II). 
It thus appears that (with the exception of one manuscript, 
No. 118, presently to be referred to) all the manuscripts dating before 
1675 A.D. are written on Corypha leaves, — a result which exactly 
agrees with that obtained from Table I. It is a striking fact that no 
dated and measured manuscript which can indubitably be proved to be 
written on Borassus leaves has as yet come to light, dating from before 
1675 A.D., or at least (to be quite exact, with a view to the two excep- 
tional cases of No. 60 in Table I, and No. 118 in Table III), dating 
from before the end of the 16th century. If Borassus manuscripts did 
exist, it is more than strange that not one of them should have been 
discovered : it is equally improbable that they — all and every one — 
should have perished. The only reasonable conclusion, from the facts 
presented, is that Borassus leaves were not used at all for book- 
writing in Northern India before the end of the 16th century, 
nor used generally before about 1676 A.D. 
The exceptional case of No. 118 in Table III, dated 1618 A.D., 
is noteworthy. It stands, quite by itself among the surrounding Corypha 
manuscripts. For the next Borassus MS. we have to go down to No. 128, 
and the year 1678 A.D. It is also a South-Bengali manuscript. Its 
case agrees in every way with that of No. 60 in Table I, which has 
already been referred to. It must be added, however, that it is by no 
means certain that No. 118 is really a Borassus manuscript. Judged by 
10 These are Nos. 7, 9, 21, 25, 26, 30, 37, 41, 57, 82, 91, 93, 101, 110, 112, 122, 
125, 127. 
