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EVOLUTION OF WRITING MATERIALS WITH EMPHASIS TO

INDIA

INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

NEME - PALLAB DAS

ENROLLMENT NUMBER - 123456789

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Introduction

Writing is a form of human communication by means of a set of visible marks that are related scholars believe that our ancestors is the hoary past started writing using some sighs and symbols , pictographic and ideographic characters on sand. Sand doesn't not hold written impression on it for long nor can the message be transported from one space to another. It is also believed that the Greeks and the Romans used wax and the Chinese used used wooden tablets bamboo strips silk cotton fabrics as writing materials but very few of these are available.

In this perticular paper I will discuss about evolution of writing materials with emphasis to India. The various stages of development of writing materials , from stone to metal and from metal to paper are being used now a day

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Stone and metal Writing on stone are the oldest example of writing

which have survived the unexpected chages of the nature through the centuries. Writing on stone had to be done painstakenly with the help of chisels or some sharp tools . But once written the message acquired a very long life. The Rosetta stone of Egypt is more than 5000 years old, is one such typical and valuable example.

Use of metal plates for writing purposes appears to have been introduced at a later datem but that too quite early in history.

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Inscribe in clay : from 3100BC In the river plains of Mesopotamia, it believed writing frist developed here, clay is an easily available commodity. It becomes the writing material of the temple scribe. Sumerians Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites are the users of clay tablets. They use tablets made of water and cleaned clay. While the clay was soft , the writer used to inscribe writing on it with the help of stylus. After the writing was some the clay tablets either was dried on the sun or tor better durability it burnt to hit.

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Contd…The oldest tablets recovered so far of Babylonian

origin dating back to fifth millenium BC . Clay tablets bear a style of wdriting known as cuneiform writing.When in 6th century BC the Aramaic language and alphabet arose, the use of clay dclined ,because it does not able to adopt the Aramaic characters.

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Papyrus : 3000B.C.The Papyrus roll is of equal antiquity as clay tablet. Egyptians leatned to make beautiful writing material from papyrus plant. In ancient Egypt is grew abundantly in the shallows of Nile delta. The stem of the plant is 3 feet to 10 feet in length, triangular.Egyptinas used its stem as a writing material .

The papyrus is a form of rush . To make a scroll. Stips are cut down the lengh of the plant the broader ones laid side by side to form a rectangle, and others are laid across at the right angles. By a process of wetting and pressure sometimes with added adhesives , the two layers bind. They are then hammared flat and dried in the sun.After that the upper side is polished with a piece of ivory or a shell.

Almost every books in the ancient civilizations of Egypt , Greece and Rome is a papyrus scroll of this type.This material is one of the most important material in the history of writing

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Bamboo books :1500 B.C.Chinese characters at this early period are written in vertical columns, so a thin strip of bamboo is ideal for a single column. To create a longer document, two lines of thread link each bamboo strip to its neighbour. The modern Chinese character for a book evolves from a pictogram of bamboo strips threaded together.

Bamboo books survive from as early as about 400 BC. The records indicate that they were in use at least 1000 years earlier, in the Shang dynasty.

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Wax, leaves and wood: from the 5th century B.C.

In many parts of the ancient world people carry renewable notebooks. They are small tablets with a waxed surface. After being written on, the wax can be warmed and smoothed over for use on another occasion.

Scribes, in all civilizations, are adept at making use of local materials. Palm trees provide the leaves of documents in parts of India. The earliest known Buddhist texts are on strips of birch bark. When the Romans are in Britain, far from their usual supplies of papyrus, they make thin veneer-like tablets from English trees for their correspondence. Many have been found in the region of Hadrian's Wall, including a Birthday invitation from a woman to her sister.

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Pergamum and parchment: 2nd century BC

During the 2nd century BC people in the region of the Mediterranean begin using a much more expensive alternative to papyrus. The substance is parchment (the word derives from a variation of Pergamum). It is a form of leather.

In the second centyry AD parchment entered into cmpetition with papyrus . In 3rd and 4th centuries papyrus abled to inproove itself with introduction of a finer quality of parchment.

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Discovery of paper : AD 105

Chinese tradition attributes one of the most wide-reaching of inventions to a eunuch at the imperial court, by the name of Cai Lun, in the year AD 105. Paper may have invented by him but it took 1000 years to reach Europe.

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Evaluation of writing materials in India

Like it had been almost every where, the earliest writing materials in India were stone and metal plate. Stone pillers ‘stambha’ were used extensively to write inscriptin. Copper Tamra used as a writing material (ink) in the stone . Literacy evidence also showed that boards of wood Falaka Samputa inscribed with chalk also served for writing records.

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Type of writing materials in India

We can segment the writing materials of India into two types -

Ancient Hard writing Material

Ancient Soft writing Materials

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Ancient Hard writing materials

Ancient hard writing materials contains - Stone

Metal

Shell

Bricks

Earthenware

Terracotta

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Ancient Soft writing materials

Ancient Soft writing materials includes -

Wooden Board

Birch-Bark

Palm liaves

Leather cloth

Paper

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Description of Ancient Hard Writing Materials

Stone – Stone engravings were made on caves smoothed or rough pillars, slabs , lids of vases etc. These ate dealt with official , private records.

Metal – Commonly gold, silver, brass, bronze, copper , iron were used as writing material

Shells – Specimens of some inscribe- shells have been discovered from the ruins of Buddhist establishment in Srikakulam, district of AndhraPradesh

Bricks,Earthenware ,terracotta - In ancient times bricks, earthenware and terracotta were also used as writing materials. Bricks and earthen ware were generally scrached before being dried or backed.

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Description of Ancient Soft Writing Materials

Wooden Board – About 5th century B.C. the wooden board was used for writing purpose. Writing on it could be done with a piece of chalk . This method was used for teaching .

Birch-bark – This inner bark of bhurja (Betala utlis) tree was the most popular material for writing manuscript , especially in northan –western India. Accoding to the records, in central and northan India , people used the birch bark. They take a piece one yard long, and as broad as the outstreched fingersof the hand, or somewhat less and prepare it in various ways . Thit oil and polish it , so as to make it hard and smooth and thy write on it.

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Contd… Palm – leaves – In southern India , plam

–leaves or ‘tali’ Were widely used for writing manuscript, especially in a slender tree like the coconut palms. They call these leaves ‘tali’ and write on them .To bind a book of this leaves together by a cord on which they are arranged, the cord going through all the leaves by a whole in the middle of each.They write the tittle of a book at the end of it, not at the beginning.

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Contd… Leather – Leather was rarely used as writing material

in India, but in early and medieval times it was predominant in western Asia and Europe.

Cloth - Smooth and non – porous cotton was also used as writing material in Ancient India.

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Contd… Paper - Papermaking has traditionally been traced to

China when Cai Lun, an official attached to the Imperial court during the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), created a sheet of paper using mulberry and other bast fibres along with fishnets, old rags, and hemp waste,[ though the earliest piece of paper found, at Fangmatan in Gansu province inscribed with a map, dates from 179-41 BC.Papermaking reached Europe as early as 1085 in Toledo and was firmly established in Xàtiva, Spain by 1150. It is clear that France had a paper mill by 1190, and by 1276 mills were established in Fabriano, Italy and in Treviso and other northern Italian towns by 1340.

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Paper in IndiaIn India, the first paper industry was developed in Kashmir, established by Sultan Zainul Abedin (Shahi Khan) of Kashmir in 1417-67 AD ."Soon, because of its quality, the Kashmiri paper was much in demand in the world and the rest of the country for writing manuscripts

Indian Paper Manufacture CentersWith the rapid demand of writing materials the paper making centers were established in different parts of the country like in Sialkot (Punjab); Zafarabad in district Jaunpur (Oudh); Bihar Sharif in district Azimabad (Patna) and Arwal in district Gaya (Bihar); Murshidabad and Hooghly (Bengal) ; Ahmedabad, Khambat and Patan (Gujarat) ; and Aurangabad and Mysore in the south.

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Indian Technique of Paper Making

The techniques of papermaking were essentially the same throughout the country, differing only in the preparation of pulp from different materials.

According to Rahman, "the process of making paper from waste paper was not very difficult. The waste paper was torn to pieces, sorted according to colour, moistened with water, taken to the river and pounded with stones, and washed for three days. It was then taken to a cistern about 7ft x 4ftx 4ft deep, half - filled with water. The pulp was thrown into this cistern. When it was thoroughly dissolved, the workman sitting on the edge of the pit, bending over the water, took in both hands the square frame which held the screen serving as a sieve, passed it underwater and drew it slowly and evenly to the surface; such that, as the water passed through, a uniform film of pulp was left on the screen. The screen was then lifted up and turned over, and the film of paper was spread on a rag cushion

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Contd… When sufficient layers had been heaped on this cushion, about 9-14 inches high, a rag was spread over them and a plank weighted with heavy stones was laid over it. When this pressure had drained the water and some of the moisture out of the stock of paper, the stones were taken away and two men, one standing at each end of the plank, see-sawed over the bundle of paper by hand. When it was well pressed the paper was peeled off, layer after layer, and spread to dry either on the walls of the building or on rags laid in the sun. When dried, each sheet was laid on the polished wooden board and rubbed with a shell till it shone.

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Conclusion

The handmade glazed paper was a remarkable product of medieval India. Bark and leaves of trees, silk or cotton clothes, planks, leather and parchment formed this paper. This paper was not only used in India but also exported to other countries. But nowadays the handmade paper industry is declining rapidly. Only a few areas are still there which produce handmade quality paper.