[INDOLOGY] Candrikā

[Andrew Ollett]

Dear all,

Thanks very much for the references you've passed on (both on- and
off-list). It looks like plenty of "palm-leaf rolls" survive, mostly from
Nepal, but also from South India. One reference I found useful is
this paper by S. R. Sarma:
https://brill.com/display/book/9789004223479/B9789004223479-s012.xml

The only thing I've seen which discusses the way that such rolls are
referred to in primary sources is Eva Wilden's 2013 article on "Eight Uses
of Palm Leaf":
https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/publications/mc/files/articles/mc05-articles-wilden.pdf
There she mentions the words *maṭi* (*veḷ ōlai*) and *muṭaṅkal *(in the
*Akanāṉūṟu* and the *Cilappatikāram* respectively). Nothing (so far) on
*candrikā* or its equivalents, or other terms for the envelope or fastener
of palm-leaf rolls.

Andrew

On Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 4:45 AM Michaels, Prof. Dr. Axel via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> 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 Rudravar**ṇa-Mahāvihāra, Pā**ṭan. 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
>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> *Emmanuel FRANCIS-GONZE*
>
> Chargé de recherche CNRS
>
> Centre d’études sud-asiatiques et himalayennes
>
> 2 Cours des Humanités
>
> 93322 AUBERVILLIERS
>
> bureau A222
>
> ✆ 01 88 12 01 82
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> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__cv.archives-2Douvertes.fr_emmanuel-2Dfrancis&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=tFXzIbyKS2C0TpVqKsMrj46qwsAermBN5wzaDe51So0&m=ax6oUvcnJVS2Mzkju2Td4wx9zNbrTC0CYdJmW2zJiT7H4Kf4-H69vWokK72wLyd8&s=pLYiihZf9OYNnCbohQWxGhfuVeM0JQqx7_vvSzxGi84&e=>
>
>
>
>
>
> Le jeu. 3 juil. 2025 à 00:04, Andrew Ollett via INDOLOGY <
> 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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