Palm leaf manuscripts

[Palaniappa]

In a posting dated    Mon, 5 Jan 1998 18:49:52 -0500
Michael Witzel <witzel at FAS.HARVARD.EDU> said about some manuscripts in north
India/Nepal:
"All written with ink (except for a very few South Indian MSS in the National
Archives, inscised with stylus)."

Is incising palm-leaf manuscripts with stylus a southern Indian custom? How
were manuscripts prepared in the north ? Only by writing instead of incising?

Has the word nArAca ever been used to mean 'stylus' in the north/Sanskrit?

Regards

S. Palaniappan