Material used for mss. has several names such as ‘मातृका, हस्तलेखः, पोथी, पाण्डुलिपिः’etc. In palm leaf mss., one can find normal palm leaves and ‘sri’ palm leaves. Five sorts of benefits are considered by scholars in writing mss. They are –
1. For one’s self
2. For the sake of others
3. By the order of kings
4. To donate, and
5. To offer in the name of god
There are five million Sanskrit mss. available in India apart from few thousands overseas. 'It is said that a people’s spoken and written language is their most important cultural attribute. In India, over thousands of years, mss. have been written in a vast number of languages and each in itself embodies her history.
What is a Manuscript ?
A Hand written book or document is called manuscript (ms.). The term ms. is derived from Latin manus means 'hand' and scriptum (√scribere) meaning 'to scratch' that meant finally 'to write', Hence, a ms. is 'some thing that written with the hand.' The science of deciphering mss. is called 'manuscriptology' and the science of writing is called 'paleography'. Each nook and corner of the world has mss. where people put their thoughts and experiences in a written form. In the glorious past, according to the elite, a person with a good treasure of mss., is only considered an 'acharya', (कोशवान् आचार्यः)
