Sep 19, 2025 Book of the Week – The Palm Leaf Book

“On leaf of pam, on sedge-wrought roll,
On plastic clay and leathern scroll,
Man wrote his thoughts; the ages passed,
And to! the Press was found at last!”
– John Greenleaf Whitter, The Library 

What are Palm Leaf Manuscripts?

Before the introduction of paper, palm leaf manuscripts were the most popular writing support in India and Southeast Asian nations, and extended to as far as Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Cambodia. It is not known when the tradition of writing on palm leaf manuscripts started, but the earliest reference to their use and production as a writing material is from the fifth century BC, which is recorded by an early Pali Buddhist treatise on various writing materials. Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia (AD 79) also documented the use of palm leaves that had made their way to Greece and Rome. 

Palm leaf manuscripts encompass a wide range of scripts, languages, and knowledge. Common topics included history, medicine, astrology, art, culture, philosophy, religion, and administrative information for governments. Some contain painted works of art or written poetry. Their widespread use was instrumental in the spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism throughout Southeast and East Asia, allowing their prayers, philosophy, and theological ideas to be widely disseminated and read. 

Before the palm leaf, written accounts were mostly carved into stone. However, palm leaves became the primary way knowledge was recorded and transferred from the 1st century BC to the 20th century. Their use peaked in the early 19th century, but the introduction of paper by the Portuguese started their demise. By the twentieth century, paper had mostly replaced palm leaves after a two-millennium dominance. Palm leaf manuscripts are still produced today in limited fashion, but they are mostly made for tourists and liturgical use. 

Physical Description

The shape of the manuscripts are an unusual 2 feet long by 3 inches tall, reflecting the shape and size of the tree leaves themselves. The leaves are usually placed between two wooden covers, which are frequently decorated with colorful art.

Palm Leaf Book
Z110 P34 P35 1940

Holes are made in the center of the leaves to secure a rope. Then, the whole stack is wrapped in cloth, traditionally red or yellow, thought to deter insects. There are 2,400 species of palm, but only two species from the Areceae family make up the majority of manuscripts. The four species are Borassus Flabellifer (palmyra palm) and Corypha Umbraculifera (talipot palm). Different species of leaves have various strengths and susceptibility to wear.

Talipot palm leaves are lighter in color, thin, and flexible. They are durable for a few centuries before becoming too brittle. The leaves of the tree can be up to 16 feet long, and are native to India and Sri Lanka before being introduced to Southeast Asia. These leaves are preferred for ink writing or painting, which sticks to the leaves. To prevent predation of the material, the ink used oils that contained insecticide properties, like castor, mustard, and cedarwood.

Palmyra palm leaves are thick, fairly flexible, but become brittle with time. They have a waxy feel to them and do not take surface ink well. Their thicker leaves are preferred for text incisions with a reed or metal pen, then pigment would be rubbed into the grooves.

In ideal conditions, a palm leaf manuscript can last for 1,000 years. However, they are more subject to decomposition than paper or vellum. Their longevity is often determined by geography and the species of tree. In Southeast Asia, due to the humid climate, they have a maximum lifespan of 500 years, but in the dry climate of northwest India, they can last much longer. Manuscripts made from the palmyra palm also last longer because of their thicker leaves. Because of their limited shelf life, knowledge had to be recopied onto new leaves.

Monastic Life and Copying Tradition

Palm leaf manuscripts are an important part of monastic life. Because they are fragile and decomposed after only a few generations, they had to be copied over to a new leaf to save the knowledge. Thus, the written word became ritually important and grew in significance with the effort extended towards its preservation. Their traditional importance is evident with the Jains, who have a holiday where they worship the written word. A foreign commentator, noticing everyone had writing utensils, claimed the country was “governed by the pen.” 

In the 1891 Indian census, the 15,371 monasteries had 90,000 people who earned their living by copying over manuscripts. A skilled copyist could complete 12 leaves per day and would be paid 25 Indian rupees for the completion of five hundred leaves, equivalent to $305 every forty days, which was considered a good middle-class wage at the time. If, for whatever reason, the tradition of copying the leaves stops, then there is a serious risk of losing material and knowledge due to their high decomposition rate. There have been periods of political instability which led to the loss by neglect of many palm leaf records.

Private ownership of palm leaf manuscripts has resulted in hundreds being lost yearly due to poor handling practices. The last few decades have seen increased efforts by governments to preserve them. The Indian government has preserved over 200,000 manuscripts to date.

Ethics and Preservation

Some ethical challenges arise when researchers from Western universities want to digitize the palm leaf material. Many texts, because of their veneration, are only allowed to be touched by monks. The books are sacred objects. In some areas, the palm leaf manuscript and its knowledge are the object of worship, analogous to a God. 

Preserving old decayed leaves brings other challenges, as the common tradition was to destroy the old, unusable manuscript by ritually throwing it into the river or by burning. This was done to avoid the “sin of decay,” which occurs when a manuscript is left in poor conditions. Conservation in perpetuity is a cultural construct, not a universal value, which can bring friction when a Western institution has a decaying palm leaf manuscript in its collection.

The Palm Leaf Manuscript that is housed at the J. Willard Marriott Library was produced in 1940 in Burma (now Myanmar). The language is written in Pali, but uses the Burmese script, an older form of writing not understood by many Burmese today. The words are subtly carved into the leaf, and pigment has been filled into the cracks to give visibility. The leaves come from the palmyra palm, owing to the texture of the leaves, the slight wax feel, flexibility, and incised text that is preferred for this species.

I examined one leaf and found that the text is from the Parivāra, the third and final book of the Theravādin Vinaya Pitaka, which is a book on laws for monks at the monastery. The first line from the top left to right reads, “Does it accord with three settlements? If, on account of negligence, he discharges urine or excrement, or saliva into water, on account of reason, there is an offense. It accords with the seven settlements by means of three settlements: It might accord by means of the facing-to-face procedure and the acknowledgement, or it might accord by means of the facing-to-face procedure and the covering-over-with-grass.“

Contributed by Alexander Jolley, Rare Books Assistant
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