Funday Times

Gaveshaka looks at early forms of writing
Books written on ola leaves with the 'panhinda'
The Kandy Gallery in the National Museum displays some early styles of writing texts. The tradition of writing manuscripts on palm leaves (ola or puskola) and gold, silver or copper plaques commenced in pre-Christian times. Through the different periods of Sri Lanka's history, thousands of Sinhala, Pali and Sanskrit manuscripts have been made available to the reader. The preparation of such manuscripts, writing with the styluses ('panhinda') and blackening the script consists of technological expedients practiced specially by Buddhist monks.

The most popular form of traditional writing was on the leaf of the talipot palm. To prepare the leaf for writing, an opened leaf bud was cut from the tree and carefully brought down on a rope line. Care was taken not to bruise the leaf, otherwise there would be blemishes on the writing leaf.

Leaf buds from young trees yield the best olas. The buds are between ten to twenty feet in length and contain anything from 80 to 100 leaflets. The leaf blades are folded on either side of a rib in each leaflet. They are smooth, strong and cream in colour. Weight, colouring, strength and durability are important features considered when the leaf is processed.
The leaf segments are separated, the mid rib is removed dividing each segment into two strips which are loosely rolled up and immersed in water in a copper cauldron and boiled with raw papain, unripe papaya pulp and pineapple leaves. After three or four hours the leaves are taken out, unrolled and put to dry in the shade for one day.

Then they are sun dried for three days and kept exposed to dew fall for three nights. The leaf by now had turned gold. They are then rolled and stored in the 'atuva' in the kitchen. The smoke from the wood adds to the keeping qualities.

The writing stylus ('panhinda') is provided with a long pointed steel or iron rod for writing. These consist of either flat or circular handles ('chatra'). They are often carved and are very attractive. Writing with the 'panhinda' is a skilled art. Writing is done where the lines run straight on the un-ruled pages with letters of even depth and boldness. The close of a sentence is marked with a feather and not a dot or a stop, because that would damage the leaf.

Sometimes these writing instruments were offered by the king for the services rendered by officials such as the Secretary or the Treasurer of the Royal Court. For instance, a golden stylus was presented by King Narendra Simha (1706-39 A D) to Dehigama who held the office of Mahagabada Nilame, second treasurer of the palace.

The application of ink is the next stage. This process is known as 'kalu medima' , the application of black varnish. A smooth paste made from resin dug up from the paddy fields and roasted leaves of the cotton plant is rubbed all over the manuscript which then throws the pale golden leaf paper into clear, sharp relief like black printing on straw-coloured stationery. The manuscript is then wiped clean with a cloth and given a final polish with brown millet, flour and rice bran.

The inscribed leaves of the 'ola' manuscripts are usually tied together by a cord passed through all the leaves and covers at either end. The two covers ('kamba') are normally of painted wood. Sometimes, the cover of important manuscripts is made out of silver or other metals. On display is one of the silver covers beautifully carved and another depicting incidents from the life of the Buddha.

The implements used for the preparation of manuscripts such as knives and scissors, writing materials like the styluses and a magnifying glass with ivory mount are among the displayed items.

Until recently, horoscopes with details of the date of birth and other astrological date were always written on ola leaves. They were rolled and kept for long years in the almirah. They were only occasionally taken out to be read by the astrologer when the person was sick or to decide whether horoscopes of two persons matched (for marriage) or to fix auspicious times for an important occasion like a wedding.

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