Switchover from palm leaves to paper

[Madhav Deshpande]

Ruth has brought up an important question.  I am not sure if writing on
palm leaves was completely abandoned.  When I was a highschool student in
Pune, our drawing teacher, who had beautiful Devanagari handwriting, was
contracted by a Jain establishment to make copies of old manuscripts on
palm leaves, and I have seen him writing on palm leaves.  Of course, the
use of palm leaves as the primary material was discontinued a long time
ago.
        All the best,
                                        Madhav Deshpande

On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, Ruth Laila Schmidt wrote:

> Dear members of the list,
>
> Can anyone provide information about when manuscript copyists left off
> writing on palm leaves and began to write on paper? I am assuming (in all
> ignorance) that this occurred prior to the widespread adoption of the
> printing press, in preference to copying, but all corrections and
> references will be gratefully accepted.
>
> I am especially interested in when this transition took place in Nepal.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Ruth Schmidt
>
>
> ***********************************************
> Ruth Laila Schmidt
> Dept of East European and Oriental Studies
> University of Oslo
> P.O. Box 1030 Blindern
> N-0315 Oslo, Norway
> Phone: (47) 22 85 55 86
> Fax: (47) 22 85 41 40
> Email: r.l.schmidt at easteur-orient.uio.no
>