sanskrit manuscripts

Language is the vehicle of our expressions. Sanskrit is the most ancient language enriched with high inflectional and structurised grammar, flawless, accepted by the linguists. One of the Sanskrit writers, the great 'dandi' proclaims -'all these three worlds would have been in complete dark, had it been not lit up these by the light of speech (इदमन्धतमः कृत्स्नं जायेत भुवनत्रयम् । यदि शब्दाह्वयं ज्योतिरासंसारं न दीप्यते ।। (काव्यादर्शः 1.4) So, it is clear that the knowledge of language is very essential. One needs to enter into language, if one wants to acquire this knowledge, and in order to do that, one must be able to read the texts.

In olden days, our knowledge is prevalent on oral tradition. Gurukulas were such traditional knowledge bases, where the guru imparts knowledge to the students. For some of the students, who are with low intellect, it is required to document the teachings for their repeated study. Also, the teachers wanted to record new insights from scriptures. Hence, different materials such as palm leaves etc., are found to be the medium to do so.

Important historical incidents have been inscribed on stones initially, followed by materials like cloth made of cotton, before the palm leaves and handmade paper occupy their place to offer wider scope to textual criticism. Writing on palm leaves and maintaining them is the easiest method compared to any other means. It is considered that the life of a palm leaf is pretty longer than the handmade paper. Our ancestors sacrificed their lives in properly maintaining the manuscripts (mss.) to preserve for the posterity.