Palm leaf-writing woman

In Tamil by HindiRinny2 Comments

From the book: International Co-operative Seminar of Tamil Studies, Madras, 1968

Not sure if either set of manuscript-writing-hands is using a very practical method of holding the pen and leaf – but they sure do look elegant, right? Pretty! Like many 1960s books and newspapers from India, this volume is filled with beautiful lithographed headers and vignettes. I’ll post more images from the book in the future!

Comments

  1. Actually, the two illustrations of the way the hands hold the stylus seem pretty accurate. It was held vertically, generally with the middle finger guiding the movement of the stylus as it scratched letters into the surface of the palm leaves. The bottom picture of the hands gives a better idea of how the palm leaves were held. I’ll try and relocate the files I have with actual photos and descriptions of how people wrote on palm leaves.

  2. We are an NGO based in India, working for holistic developmemt of Traditional Arts and Crafts, One of our activity is to write scripts on Palm leaves and handmade papers, to revive ancient scripts for further generations, we can send you more info about our organisation
    As you said you have more info regarding how people wrote on palm leaves with actual photos,that would help is a lot developing art further..
    Hope you would help…
    Regards,

    Setuk Shah

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