History of Palm Leaf Manuscript

Palm leaf manuscripts are an example of the efforts that sometimes went into the preservation and spread of knowledge. Palm leaves were among the first writing materials to be used, and some sources say that Sanskrit was first written on this material more than 6,000 years ago.

The writing on Palm Leaves was done with a stylus. The writing was of a very cursive and interconnected style. The leaves were then tied up as sheaves. Once written down, each document had a limited time frame before which the document had to be rewritten or copied onto new sets of dried palm leaves

Today access to these palm leaf manuscripts to an average person is either by visiting oriental libraries or government museums. Even here access to these manuscripts is restricted to only viewing and you cannot touch or hold them.