3517401312

* **

Tadao MIHO and Satoko MIHO

On the Forest of Tala-trees Refered by the Xuan
Zang's
Travels

Abstract

Zang's
The Xuan
Travels made mention of the forest of Tala-trees
in Konkanapura, south India.


A. F. Rudolf Hoernle drew a conclusion that the Tala-tree was Corypha palm. It seems his result is to the point.
However there have been some mistake during the proving process.
Hoernle says, in those days, there was just Corypha palm, Palmyra palm did not exist yet in India.
But Palmyra palm has already existed there in my opinion.

The forest of Tala-trees was a Corypha palm plantation.Corypha palm leaf was more exellent for writing

materials than Palmyra palm one. So the plantation of Corypha palm was administered by Konkanapura.

[Key Words :Xuan

Zang's

Travels, Palm-leaf-manuscripts, Tala-palm, Corypha-palm, Palmyra-palm, Writing-materials,
A. F. R. Hoernle]

Xuan
Zang
629
1




19
645

646

1151
934
2

Writing Materials

*
**
18

Saint-Martin, Cunningham, and their successors all

adopt the direction given in the Life, passsing
over the statement in the Records. Saint-Martin

thinks it possible that Banavasior Vanavasa

may have been the Konkana-city of our pilgrim.1

Cunningham suggests "Annagundhi on the
northern bank of the Tungabhadra river" as the
capital of the country, and Fergusson can only
refer the capital to some place in Mysore. 2

Mr.Burgess is disposed to seek for Konkanapur


about Kopal or Kokanur? Konkanur which is

310 miles as the crow flies from Kanchi and 335

miles from Nasik;" this seems to be also the
present opinion of Dr. Fleet who was at one time

disposed to identify Konkanapur 3
with Karnul.

But these identifications seem to be all beset with

difficulties. The country Konkana was in the

A. F. Rudolf Hoernle and
southern division of the Brihat Samhita,
Alberuni places it the south near the sea.4 If we

could adopt the reading of the D text, viz- T u

or Ch afor Kung,the original would be a
word like Dakkanapura or Thakkanapura.
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt.Ltd.,New
Delhi,1996,p.238
A. F. Rudolf Hoernle 14
"the Records"

Lalita Vistra Tala-phalasya "the Life"
"the Fang-chih"
M.Saint-Martin Cunningham Fergusson

BurgessFleet Alberuni



1985Cunningham

"Ancient Geography of India",rev.by
Deccan Plateau Majumdar,Calcutta,1924,reprinted,Delhi,1979,p.632,745.


Thomas Watters
"On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India AD 629-645"
Tungabhadra
T. W. Bhys Davids S. W. Bushell Annagundi
1904-05Rondon 888
In all texts of the Records, and in the fang-chih,
the direction from Dravida is given as north, but 11

the Life makes it to have been north-west. M.
 19

Tamil Nadu
Karnataka
Maharashtra Simoga
Mysore
Plateau

S. Muthiah, Dr. R. Ramachandran, P. Poovendran,
"An Atlas of India", Oxford University Press, New
York,1990.
Kanchipuram

Andhra pradesh Cuddapah KurunolAndhra pradesh
Gooty 4140
Bellary
Kurnool
Hyderabad

Chittoor
Kadiri Anantapur
Nasik




Madras Kanchipuram
Chittor Bangalore


920
3


A.Cunni-
ngham
TungabhadraAnnagundi
Chitradurga
13 221994347


140 5
770
Mysore Exp.
Cunningham
Cauvery Burgess "Kopal" Koppal
20

8




Krishna palmyra
Godavari tree fan-palm
3531
palmyra tree
Mouths of the Krishna Corypha



Narmada pattra
patra patta

1994
Tungabhadra
Reservoir pattra
Cunningham Anagundi
m
aropayati



Bellary
100
Badami Hill Laurus cassia
100
Bodh-bh.,Divy., 729
pattra
pattra
Jagalur Tungabhadra
Reservoir
300
600 600 900
25.0
27.54080
Black soil Mixed Red and Black soil
Millets 6 11


Writing Materials

7
 21

Corypha L.

B. flabellifer L.

doub palm Palmyra

20 palm tala palm toddy palm Lontaropalme
80 Parmyrapalme
2030m 6090cm

C.umbraculifera L.
talipot palmTalipotpalme 0.6 1.2
0.51.5m

600m2430m 6080
6090cm1.5 3m 1.5m
5 10cm2.4 4.8m cm
3 6m
3.5cm 1520cm

52108








Borassus L. 198912

9

Borassus flabellifer

L.


10
2.44.8m
0.51.5m

22

Institute of Asian Studies, "A Descriptive paleogr*- phical evidence, at least to the 4th
Catalogue of palm-leaf Manuscripts in Tamil", century, and are older than the Bower MS 502
.
vol.I, Part I, 1990 p.113
500

Talipot palmCorypha umbracu- * a
lifera
native Dekhantada

palmyra palmBorassus flabellifer
talaBorassus flabelliformistadi tall

rough Corypha umbraculifera,or C.taliera
coarse
paper Corypha
12
Corypha taliera Roxb.
Hoernle
Corypha umbraculifera L.

stylus There is every reason to believe that C. Tali-
lamp black era and C.umbraculifera are identical.
A. F. Rudolf Hoernle,"An Epigraphical Note on
p. Palmleaf, Paper and Birch-bark", Journal of the
George Buhler Asiatic Society of Bengal, LX , Pt. 1, No.2, 1900,
"Indian Paleography" ".Writing Materials, p.93
Libraries and Writers." "37.Writing Materials490"
11
D.Leaves. 1170
According to the Canon of the Southern
Buddhistssee above. page 20, leavespanna


were in ancient times the most common writing
material. Though the texts500 do not mention the
plants which furnished these leaves, it is not
13

doubtful that they came then, as in later times, for writing

chiefly from the large-leaved palm-trees, the tada
or talaBorassus flabelliformisand the tad l or
tal lCorypha umbraculifera, or C.taliera, which,
originally indigenous in the Dekhan, are found at
present even in the Panjab. The earliest witness501
for the general use of palm-leaves throughout the
whole of India is Hiuen Tsiang7th century.
But we possess clear proof that they were used
even in north-west India during much earlier
times. The Horiuzi palm-leaf MS certainly goes
back to the 6th century, and some fragments in
the recently discovered Godfrey Collection from
Kashgar belong, as Hoernle has shown on the
The most widely used
The leaves of Corypha taliera are thick and not
very flexible. They are also prone to insect attack.
O. P. Agrawal,"Conservation of Manuscripts and
Paintings of South-east Asia". Butter worths,
Boston, 1984, p.25, 26
Although there are many varieties of palm-trees,
the leaves of three kinds of palm-trees were used
 23

in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand,

Indonesia and Combodia. They are the palmyra
palm,talipot palm and Corypha taliera Roxb. In
South India only two types namely the palmyra Kabin Buri
palm and talipot palm were used. Khon khaen
G.John Samuel,"Palm-Leaf Manuscrirts in Tamil
and their Preservation", Institute of Asian Studies,
Palm-Leaf and Other Manuscripts in Indian
Languages, 1996, p.197.


13501767
Bai-larn 12
14bai
larnlaan
Lopburi
golden green 17
golden leaf
O. P. Agrawal 28
C.utan Lam gebang palm
C.elata Roxb.
90C.elata Roxb.
Corypha Gebanga BlumeGeb-
Corypha lecomtei Becc. ang Palm
Corypha umbraculifera
15
1169 buri palm
Line.

16
buri8



I may add that there is a kind of Corypha palm,
Cory- the Corypha elata, which grows, probably
pha umbraculifera Line. But its leaves are
cultivated, in Bengal and Bihar.
talipot palm fan palm not suitable for the purpose of writing books, and
have never been so used. Its complete natural
segments are much too narrow ; they measure
C.utan Lam, only about 12 inches, and allow only strips of 34

C.elata Roxb. inch or less to be cut from them.

buri palm, gebang palm angel palm A. F. Rudolf Hoernle,"Epigraphical Note on
C.laevis A.Chev. Palm-leaf, Paper and Birch-bark", p.97
C.utan


Albertine Gaur "Writing
Materials of the East"British Library, 1979, p.14
Three species of palm-trees provided material
24

suitable for writing : the talipat palmCorypha 19

umbraculifera, the palmyra palmBorassus
flabelliferand, especially in Southeast Asia, the
lontar palmCorypha utan." 20

21

The leaves of the talipat palm are long and broad
with a cross vein marking ; the palmyra leaf is
hardly ever more than one and a half inches wide 22
and shows a pock-marked surface ; lontar leaves
seem to be a somewhat finer quality. 23


Bill Dalton, "Indonesia Handbook"Moon Publicat-
54 ion,U.S.A.,1978 "lontar palm or fan- palm"
10Corypha utan Lam. "lontar literature"

Borassus flabellifera, Linn. "lontar palm or fan-palm"

83 70100600
juice tuakgul
air
sirih

Borassus flabelliformis
255
lontar
"This tree flowers
twice a year, once at the beginning of the wet."

18

Borassus flabelliformis 1012

G.Buhler " 37.-Writing Materials" 24
or tala"
Borassus "tada 1012

HoernleDr.Prain Sibpur 10
Borassus 25
flabelliformis flabellifer 10
A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, "An Epigraphical Note on
Palm-leaf, Paper and Birch-bark", p.93 1
Nypa fruticans Wurmb. 10 26


5 10m


 25

30



31

32


33
Hoernle


13
16 34
19


A. F. Rudolf Hoernle,"Epigraphical
Note on Palm-leaf, Paper and Birch-bark", p.94. 35

600m

36600
27
Bill Dalton
seed



123 124
Hoernle
1518
does not grow wild anywhere in India
PanjabUpper Sindh Paper

Rajputana
2728 A. 124
F.Rudolf Hoernle, "Epigraphical Note on Palm-leaf,
Paper and Birch-bark", p.94.

Hoernle

28
29
There is a notice in Hiuen Tsiang's TravelsBeal,

vol. ii, p.255 of the existence of "a forest of Tala
26

trees" near Konkanapura in South-India.The exact G. Buhler

site of that place is still a matter of disputesee
Indian Antiquary, , p.115,, p.28; but it
must be somewhere in the Conkan, which is the
limit to which the Corypha umbr. grows freely in
cultivation though not wild. The pointed
notice of the "forest of Talipat palms" is curious. It
chiefly from the large-leaved palm-trees, the tada
or talaBorassus flabelliformisand the tad l or
tal l Corypha umbraculifera, or C.taliera, which,
originally indigenous in the Dekhan,
113 tadatad l
talatal l

must have been a particular feature of that place, O.P.Agurawal,"Conservation of Manuscripts

and must have been shown to Hiuen Tsiang as
such.In the forest there was a Stupa; and Hiuen
Tsiang adds that"in all the countries of India the
leaves of the Talipat palm are everywhere used
for writing on". Here we seem to have a clear
instance of a plantation of Corypha palms, on a
large scale, for the purpose of growing leaves
inland use or for export. Writing was mainly
and Paintings South-east Asia"Borassus flabe-
llifer Linepalmyra palm "Sanskrit name,Tal ;
Hindi, Tar"Corypha umbraculifera Line"Sanskrit
name, Karalika, Sritalam, Tali"25
for

carried on in Buddhist and other monasteries, and

probably there were Corypha plantations
connected with most of the larger monastic 51925
establishments in South India ; only the
Konkanapura plantation would seem to have been
one on a particularly large scale.
"An Epigraphical Note on Palm-leaf,Paper and
Birch-bark",p.124
trees"
"Tala
"Talipat palms""Corypha palms"
"Corypha Plantations" ta-la
: Skt. Pa. tala.
Borassus flabelliformis.
Concan Corypha umbr.
wild cultivation 309

tala
Borassus flabelliformis
774

Tala
Talipat palms
Tala

Dr.Prain Borassus flabellifera, Linn

Tala-phalaTala 32

Tal lBorassus Corypha 292.7576
132
83
" Talipat palms" 37
"Corypha palms" 38
4181

Tala 1986537

Borassus tala
 27

Borassus flabellifer Borassus flabe-

lliformisCorypha rib
palmTalipat palm
161240.64 3.81cm
1970118 1640.64cm

tala
p.96
"absolute test"


tal l

"Talipat palms" "Corypha palms"
To sum up the result of my enquiries into the use
of palm-leaf as writing material, it appears that
1 Originally none but leaves of the Corypha
umbr. palm were used throughout India.This state
easily continued down to the 15th century.
130 2 From the middle of the 15th century their
use was discontinued in Western India,no other
Corypha umbr. kind of palm-leaf replacing them.
Borassus fl. 3 From the beginning of the 17th century they
ceased to be used in Bengal and probably Orissa,
the leaves of the Borassus fl. taking their place.
4 In Behar their exclusive use continued down
34 to the middle of the 18th century.
4.46cm 12 5 The use of the Borassus flab. is com-
3.81cm paratively modern, and it is, and was, nowhere
12 current in Northern India, outside Bengal and
3.812.54cm 2.54cm Orissa.
6 Paper began to come into use, in the
344.46 Centre of Northern India, in Western India and in
7.62cm 1234 Eastern India about the middle respectively of the
6.354.46cm 344.46cm 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.
7In the Centre and West it entirely superseded,
p.9495 in the 15th century, the writing-material
previously in use, that is, palm-leaf in the West
4.463.81 and perhaps birch-bark in the Centre. In the East
3.814.46 it maintained a finally successful rivalry until
comparatively recent times.
p.122

"The width, therefore, is an 161719
almost absolute test"p.95

28

But it is difficult to suppose that the employment
of the Borassus leaves as a material for writing
can be separated by any long interval from the
introduction of the Borassus palm into India. The
tree could not well have existed long in India
without its useful properties being discovered. If
the use of its leaves for writing grew up in the
15th or 16th centuries, its introduction can
hardly be placed much earlier than the 14th 618 907
century. p.124

1

19


"Talipat
palms""Corypha palms" 64825



38







23
55
104105 677




54464
11




bud



Zagros
13.816.1m
 29

23cm

100

12367 39 42

100
541584596 30
585 5080
54
63
30200



Palm Leaf Manuscripts

182







tala
*
pattra


40

"" 768 820
100 783 807
41


30

1356







10
54367

27
19514 54491




45

23cm11m27cm
16.118.4m

178

643712673743
43

Ranbir Kishore

tala
sr
l -tala"Preservation
and
Repair of Palm Leaf Manuscripts", The Indian Archives, 2115
sr
,1961-1962, p.73 l 54440

 31

1043 A.D.
"Alberuni'sIndia"
5933 The Hindus have in the south of their country a
54445 slender tree like the date and cocoa-nut palms,
bearing edible fruits and leaves of the length of
one yard, and as broad as three fingers one put
7172 beside the other.They call these leaves tar
l tala

or
tar

Borassus flabelliformis , and write on
15 them. They bind a book of these leaves together
1080 by a cord on which they are arranged, the cord
3310174 going through all the leaves by a hole in the
middle of each.
Edited with Notes and Indices by Edward C.
Sachau, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt.
Ltd, New Delhi, 1992, vol. 1, p.171


44
tala
or tarBorassus
flabelliformis
tala
tal
tar



tar l


tal l

Rajasinha
16351687
45

125

At the time of Alberuni 973-1043 A.D. the
46 Borassus palm,in all probability, did not exist in
India for writing books.He says the leaves
tala measured one yard in length,and three fingers in
breadth:

In Alberuni's use of the term tarl for the leaves,

there appears to be some misunderstanding. But a
greater difficulty is his remark about the edible
fruits, as Alberuni is generally a careful observer
and reporter. Personally he can have had no
acquaintance with the tree, as neither the
Corypha nor the Borassus grows in the localities
where he lived : he can only have reported what
he was told. But as the Borassus palm is out of
Alberuni973 the question, he must either have made a slip, or
32

the text of his work is handed down incorrectly. fruit of the Tala palm, when it drops from its
As immediately before he had mentioned a point stalk, is of a brilliant yellow, even so is the face of
of resemblance to the date and cocoanut palms, he the Blessed Gautama perfectly pure."
probably now wanted to point out a point of p.132
difference,that the Corypha palm bore no edible s
fruits; he probably meant to say "a tree, slender
Lalita Vistra Sakya-muni
like the date and cocoanut palms, but bearing no
edible fruits." p.125 308


Borassus palm
Corypha palm 5548
12


36
266
"" 313
"" 13
559798
Lalita Vistra

"Tala-phalasya"

Tala-phalasya
phala
11 p
lta-nirbhasaplta=

nirbhasa
-
Lalita Vistra Tala-phalasya
537
palm
Tala
Lalita Vistra
Tala-phalasya

Kajur

Professor Hara Prasad Shastri has drawn my Dr.Prain
attention to a passage in the Lalita Vistra Borassus Corypha
Bibliotheca Indica Ed., p.526, 1.12, in which the exocarp 'brilliant yallow'
fruit of the Borassus flabellifer is supposed to be 'rusty brown
referred to. As the Lalita Vistra certainly ' 'grey '
existed as early as the 3rd century A.D.having 'brilliant yallow'
been translated into Chinese in 308 A.D.,we
Kajurwild
dateTala
should thus have a testimony to a very early
Kajur
existence of the Borassus palm in India. The
passage runs as follows: tad-yath =
Tala-
api nama
phalasya pakvasya samanantaravrntacyutasya This seems to me to speak for itself,and shows the

rayah p
bandhan-a bhavati, evameva
lta-nirbhaso necessity of caution in dealing with botanical

mukha-
Bhaguvato Gautamasyapari uddham terms occurring in old Indian literature.
mandalam,

etc.,i.e.,"just as the exocarp of the ripe p.132,133
 33

Tala-phalasya p
lta-nirbhaso

Kajurwild
dateKajur 49

Kajurwild date
Phoenix sylvestris

KharjuraKhajur 20
Khejur seed

P.dactylifera L.


47
P.dactylifera

cm 16
cm 362

48
10


116
No.186No.187 406


phalasya
Lalita Vistra Tala-



Jambu
Eugenia Jambolana L.




Tala-phalasya
KharjuraPhoenix sylvestris

Amra
Mangifera indica L.


Borassus aethiopum Mart.
Tala-phala

Suvarna-prabhasa-sutra

1931
B.heineana Becc. 12cm wild date
KajurKharjura,


rayah
bandhan-a

34

Robert Knox, "An
180652 Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East-
Indies"London,1681, p.109113W.A.DE
50260 Silva, "Catalogue of Palm Leaf Manuscripts in the
Library of the Colombo Museum"Vol.1,1938,p.13
50




399 412

51
864


16
19







Madras Chennai
Institute of Asian StudiesV.Ganesan

e-mail199829

"" Regarding the name of literature of 2 century B C
Alberuni where the mention about Palmyra was made, is
'Paripatal'.Even also,the Tamil grammatical text,
Tolkkappiam, has also reference to this tree and
the word 'Panai'Palmyra.
'Paripatal'

Tolkkappiam
'Panai'

 35

Tolkappiyam Harsavardhana

Pahlava

Vengi
198712
3392000 640 642
XX
Narasimhavarman
'Panai' 630 668
51


Nasik150

Gaius Plinius Secundus2379
37
40


Paripatal AiholePattadakal

54




52

12131,000

55


56




Calukya Kanarese



Badami
Marath l

53 Pulakesin.535566

Kanarese57
K
lrtivarman. Mangalesa579610

Pulakesin.610 Dravida ""
642 Karnataka
11


Maharastra


36

Zang16
1Xuan
59620600602
664
63
2
58 1994
N.Geethacharya"Palm-Leaf
Manuscripts in Kannada" Institute of Asian studies, 316
"Palm-Leaf and Other Manuscripts in Indian Languages"
,1996,p.147-163
500
Nagari or Nandinagari 25

4195227
Kannada Scripts Telugu Language 105
Kannada Scripts Tamil Language 54
Telugu Scripts Kannada Language 6Millets
Telugu Scripts Telugu Language
Tamil Scripts Kannada Language
Tamil Scripts Tamil Language
Kannada Scripts Prakrit Language 2400
Thigalri
Modi GranthaAravaManipravala

19969
Ayurveda 266
Manthras 19982 14
3000

0.3



1985 1 144

306
71912 11
600m 1972478
8Georges Jean

19901171


Palm Leaf Manuscript

Mar. 13, 1998, , Jul. 7, 2001, 19941228
91989
 37

176177 2119
10

331978531228 229

11 1896 1977 19041959
1962
1980 Oriental Books Reprint CorporationNew 178180
DelhiReprinted 23
12 1988
19972529
199611236

241988
158
2523239
2623237
271731
28197810
1319901162 2120
talipot palm 29


14
55
1983 199525
1005
15
1993 1045
265 3023
1614 238
17Palm 31
Leaf Manuscripts
281994 3223
12 242
339 177
Palm Leaf Manuscripts 34
31
199712 24
18 156
1986219 17

1991458 30
19 199612
3523236 242243
199324 3623238
3711472
20SAGO
PALM 21994 38
38

David Diringer, "The Book before Printing 303 330

Ancient,Medieval and Oriental ",1953,New 55347
York,p.358 361. 56433
Ranbir Kishore, "Preservation and Repair of 57
Palm Leaf Manuscripts", The Indian Archives,, 19881340
1961-1962,p.73. 58
44
199512
1980468

199210540
3912368

12404
25
54469
4023238
41Palm Leaf Manuscripts

32199812 197718

Ramayana
Palm Leaf Manuscripts
3719993
42172863 9 181
431964
58110


72199511
Valm lki

443474
453475
461981
1051
4724152
489 189
499 181 Albertine Gaur,"Writing Materials of the East"
501728
34
51 Palm Leaf Though the place itself has not been found Xuan
Manuscripts Zang's reports has the ring of truth. Buddhist
361998 monasteries were centres of book production and
52416 nearby plantations would have ensured an
53R.S. adequate supply of writing material, just as in
1985277 ancient Egypt papyrus plantations were
349 maintained around Alexandria and other places
54 where papyrus was manufactured.1979
 39

British Library Brard, P.12

Buddhist
monasteries
Writing Materials

leaf

Corypha utanZeamays

192
Corypha
utan

TengananBali
Aga

I Wayan Muditadnana
ikat

41
40