1900.] A, F. R. Hoei'iile — Epigraphical Note 07i Palm-leaf, etc. 123 
Tlie Gorypha umhraculifera being- a South-Indiau tree, it is clear 
that its leaves, prepared to serve as writing material, mast have formed 
an article of trade from very early times, and been carried as merchandise 
over the whole of ISTorthern India. The customers of it, of course, were 
almost wholly limited to the literary classes, who wrote and copied 
books, i.e., to the learned in schools and monasteries, etc. Paper came in 
with the Muhammadans, in the 11th century. It only very slowly and 
gradually displaced the Corypha palm-leaf, the use of which had the 
sanction of age and religion among the conservative Indian literates : 
they looked witn distrust upon the product of the Mlecchas. The 
paper-makers are still, as a rule, Muhammadans ; and there exists 
no indigenous Sanskritic term for paper, the word universally used 
being hdgaj or kdgad.^'^ With the 14th century, paper began to grow more 
widely into favour, and the import trade of Corypha leaves propor- 
tionately declined. With the beginning of the 17th century we find that 
paper has displaced the Corypha leaves throughout hlorthern India 
excepting Behar, and the trade with it had practically ceased. Palm- 
leaves were still occasionally wanted ; and thus it came to pass ( so it 
seems) that the people of Bengal and Orissa took to the use of the 
Borassus fiahellifer which grew plentifully in their own country, because 
they could no more readily obtain suitable Corypha leaves in sufficient 
quantities. It is curious to observe that the literati of Behar were the 
most conservative in the retention of the use of the Corypha leaves ; 
for their latest Corypha MS. is dated A.D. 1739 (No. 44 in Table V). 
It would seem that the use of the leaves of the Borassus palm was 
introduced into Eastern India from the South. For its use in Southern 
India can be traced to a much earlier period. As Table II shows, the 
earliest recorded Borassus manuscript in Southern India may be 
referred to about 1550 A.D., and since that time Borassus is generally, 
though not exclusively, made use of, in Southern India, for book 
writing, Corypha also being used occasionally. The case of Southern 
India, however, I have not been able to thoroughly investigate. In 
Ceylon the use of Corypha leaves appears to be still predominant; 
in fact, for book writing, I am informed, it is still in exclusive use. 
The cause or causes that led to the Borassus growing into favour, and 
more or less displacing the time-honoured Corypha are obscure. It 
IS This is a Hindu corruption of the Persian Mghaz which itself is a 
corruption of the Chinese Tcog-dz, the name of their “ paper made of the bark of 
the paper-mulberry tree.” When the Arabs, in the 8th century, learned paper- 
making from the Chinese, they adopted the Chinese name for their own paper made 
of linen rags. See Professor Fr. Hirth’s Indisclie Studien, p. 263, and Professor 
Karabacek’s Fuhrer durch die Ausstellung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer. 
