Carbon dating of palm-leaf MSS?

[Dominik Wujastyk]

This message is forwarded on behalf of R. Ganapathy, who is not a member 
of this forum.  Please be sure to CC any replies to him, at 
<rg1939 at rcn.com>

Dominik Wujastyk
INDOLOGY committee

------------ Forwarded Message -----------
On Fri, 3 Apr 2009, RG wrote:

> Dear Dr Wujastyk:
>
> I got your address through a friend of mine in London.
>
> I was a Senior Res Associate at the Enrico Fermi Inst of the Univ of Chicago
> many years ago.
>
> I have a palm leaf manuscript, 868 pages, with grantha script describing
> Valmiki's Ramayan. I got this from an antique shop in Cochin five years ago.
>
> Because grantha was used in South India to transmit Sanskrit language, I
> decided to date this using carbon-14 method using accelerator mass
> spectrometry. I just got the preliminary age few days ago, about 350 years
> old from today.
>
> I searched the google to find other carbon 14 dates on the use of grantha
> script. I did not get any useful information. Since I am new to this field,
> I am looking for help in locating journals which publish C-14 dates on
> Indian palm leaf manuscripts.  What kind of range do we have on these
> dates?I would deeply appreciate if you can help me on this.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> R.Ganapathy
>
> Bethlehem, PA, USA
>
>