[INDOLOGY] Candrikā

[Michaels, Prof. Dr. Axel]

Dear all,
the earliest palm-roll in Nepal is from 11th century. The title of Bernhard Koelver’s book mentioned by Michael Witzel is: Documents from the Rudravarṇa-Mahāvihāra, Pāṭan. 1. Sales and mortgages. VGH-Wissenschaftsverlag, Sankt Augustin 1985 (Nepalica, Band 1). The Heidelberg Nepal Research Group is working on scanning and restituting a private collection of 430 palm rolls from the 13th to  18th century. The term candrikå is not used in this context.

The oldest palm leaf document from Nepal is probably described by Kamal P. Malla: “The Earliest Dated Document in Newari. The Palm leaf from Uku Bahãh NS 235/AD 1114”, Kailash 16 (1–2): 15–25.
Best greetings
Axel Michaels


From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of "indology at list.indology.info" <indology at list.indology.info>
Reply to: Michael Witzel <witzel at fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Friday, 4. July 2025 at 09:20
To: Manu Francis <manufrancis at gmail.com>
Cc: "indology at list.indology.info" <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Candrikā

Dear all
In Nepal we have hundreds of rolled up sealed  palm leaf strips
The oldest probably from 1,420 CE

However they are tightly rolled up with no visible air space and then sealed. I will look for an example

They usually contain records of land sales, rent and the like

Many have been published by my late friend Bernhard  Kölver


I vaguely recall that even older ones have been found in a Patan/lalitpur monastery. Will look it up.

Michael Witzel  ( residence : Zushi Japan)

Sent from my iPhone


On Jul 4, 2025, at 00:04, Manu Francis via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Andrew,

Here is an example of rolled and sealed leaves from the BnF:
https://tst-project.github.io/mss/Indien_1037.xml<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__tst-2Dproject.github.io_mss_Indien-5F1037.xml&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=tFXzIbyKS2C0TpVqKsMrj46qwsAermBN5wzaDe51So0&m=ax6oUvcnJVS2Mzkju2Td4wx9zNbrTC0CYdJmW2zJiT7H4Kf4-H69vWokK72wLyd8&s=Js_HEXHX9HGHG_eqCdTd_Ul4qUpIK6fzo9wH43R2pQA&e=>

And attached an article by Eva Wilden. See p. 70.

Yours.

Manu
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Le jeu. 3 juil. 2025 à 00:04, Andrew Ollett via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> a écrit :
Dear colleagues,

Another question: I've seen one reference (below) to something called a "candrikā" in Sanskrit that was apparently used as a kind of cover for a written palm-leaf. It has entered several dictionaries in this sense (Kannada candrike, Telugu candrika, Tamil cantirakam). Does anyone have any further references for this? Or some references for the practice of rolling up written palm leaves and sealing them, which I suspect is what's going on here?

Primary sources:
- Sundarī and Kamalā's Camatkārataraṅgiṇī<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_in.ernet.dli.2015.79729_page_n179_mode_2up&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=tFXzIbyKS2C0TpVqKsMrj46qwsAermBN5wzaDe51So0&m=ax6oUvcnJVS2Mzkju2Td4wx9zNbrTC0CYdJmW2zJiT7H4Kf4-H69vWokK72wLyd8&s=-2GTyIK5UkFgkp72xBjM4k7flOWGBnxAxRt2VdB4Zhs&e=> (comm. on Rājaśēkhara's Viddhaśālabhañjikā)

Andrew

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