122 A. F. R. Hoernle — Epigraphical Note on Palm-leaf, etc. [No. 2, 
paper manuscript of all, mentioned in the “ Notices ” is No. 2043. 
It is dated A.D. 1343 (Sam. 1399), and lias no string-hole, hut in its 
place a small read disk, about f" diameter. These two earliest paper 
manuscripts are shown in Table YII in the column for “ Notices,” 
under the heading “ Centre.” They are both written in a distinctly 
Western type of Nagari, and must have been written somewhere in the 
North-West Provinces : they do not properly belong to Eastern India. 
Under the heading “ Centre ” are entered paper manuscripts written 
in Nagari (not in Bengali, neither in Maitliili) cliaracters. All these 
properly belong to the North-West Provinces or Ondh, i.e., to the 
Central part of Northern India. It may be noticed that no palm-leaf 
manuscripts are recorded for this part of Northern India. This is a 
noteworthy fact, to which reference will be made subsequently. 
To sum up the result of ray enquiries into the use of palm-leaf 
as writing material, it appears that — 
(1) Originally none but leaves of the CorypJia iimhr. palm were 
used throughout India. This state continued down to the I5th century. 
(2) From the middle of the 15th century their use was discontinued 
in Western India, no other kind of palm-leaf replacing them. 
(3) From the beginning of the 17th century they ceased to be used 
in Bengal and probably Orissa, the leaves of the Borassus fl. taking 
their place. 
(4) In Behar their exclusive use continued down to the middle of 
the 18th century. 
(5) The use of the Borassus flat . is comparatively modern, and it is, 
and was, nowhere current in Northern India, outside Bengal and Orissa. 
(6) Paper began to come into use, in the Centre of Northern 
India, in Western India and in Eastern India about the middle respec- 
tively of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. 
(7) In the Centre and West it entirely superseded, in the 15th 
century, the writing-material previously in use, that is, palm-leaf in the 
West and perhaps birch-bark in the Centre. In the East it maintained 
a finally successful rivalry until comparatively recent times. 
1268 ; No. 529 in A.D. 1320 or Sam. 1376. I have examined all these manuscripts. 
They are all written in Nagari, and are North-Western manuscripts (not Bengali). 
No. 553 is as modern a manuscript as one can wish, and is dated Sam. 1873, 
or A.D. 1817 ! No. 371 is dated Sam. 1715 or A.D. 1659. No. 122 is dated San 
(i.e., Bengali year, not Samvat) 1234, equal to A.D. 1826. No. 582 is doubly dated 
in Sam. 1288 (not 1268 as the Catalogue reads;, and (^aka 1152, which is A.D. 1231 
{viz., 1288 — 57 and 1152-1-79) ; this is the only really old paper manuscript. 
No. 529 is not dated at all, the compiler of the Catalogue having mistaken some 
blurred Nagari aksaras for numeral figures. 
