farfel_n08_061_526

(526

Foliophiles
Santa Fe, N.M.
Aug. '00
$45 (18)

See #641

The Great Paritta. (Protective Suttas)
Palm leaf manuscript - Myanmar (Burma)
A translation in Burmese, completed on the 7th
waxing of the month of Tawthalin of the Burmese
year 1237. (Sept. 1875). (Talipat palm)

Single leaf inscribed on both sides with 6 lines
of script, around 2 holes where a vine cord bound
the book + allowed the pages to be turned. The
circular characters inscribed on the leaf with a
sharp stylus and darkened with lamp black to make
them legible. The leaf tapers slightly to the ends
and has ^a golden color with occasional slight black stain
at the edges. (?? where a gold coating has changed color.)
19 5/8" x 2" at the ends (2 3/16" at the widest point)
Talipat palm. (Corypha umbraculifera).
Scribes employing an iron stilus to scratch the
letters, were compelled to avoid long straight lines,
because any scratch along the longitudinal fibre,
which runs from the stalk to the point, would
split the palm leaf. This gave rise to the rounded
shapes of the Oriya, Burmese + other "round"
current hands. Burmese characters look very much
like a never ending chain of circles, half-circles +
segments of circles in different combinations.
In India + in the countries of Southeast Asia
which came under Indian influence, palm leaves
have always been the most popular writing
material. 3 species of palm-trees provided material
suitable for writing: the talipat palm, the
palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) + especially
in Southeast Asia, the lontar palm (Corypha
utan). The palmyra palm is hardly ever