EVOLUTION OF WRITING MATERIALS

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INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN
UNIVERSITY
NEME - PALLAB DAS
ENROLLMENT NUMBER - 123456789

2. Writing is a form of human communication by means
of a set of visible marks that are related scholars believe
that our ancestors is the hoary past started writing
using some sighs and symbols , pictographic and
ideographic characters on sand. Sand doesn't not hold
written impression on it for long nor can the message
be transported from one space to another. It is also
believed that the Greeks and the Romans used wax and
the Chinese used used wooden tablets bamboo strips
silk cotton fabrics as writing materials but very few of
these are available.
In this perticular paper I will discuss about evolution of writing
materials with emphasis to India. The various stages of
development of writing materials , from stone to metal and from
metal to paper are being used now a day
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3. Writing on stone are the oldest example of writing
which have survived the unexpected chages of
the nature through the centuries. Writing on stone
had to be done painstakenly with the help of
chisels or some sharp tools . But once written the
message acquired a very long life. The Rosetta
stone of Egypt is more than 5000 years old, is one
such typical and valuable example.
Use of metal plates for writing purposes
appears to have been introduced at a later datem
but that too quite early in history.
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4. In the river plains of Mesopotamia, it believed writing
frist developed here, clay is an easily available
commodity. It becomes the writing material of the
temple scribe. Sumerians Babylonians, Assyrians and
Hittites are the users of clay tablets. They use tablets
made of water and cleaned clay. While the clay was
soft , the writer used to inscribe writing on it with the
help of stylus. After the writing was some the clay
tablets either was dried on the sun or tor better
durability it burnt to hit.
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5. The oldest tablets recovered so far of Babylonian origin
dating back to fifth millenium BC . Clay tablets bear a
style of wdriting known as cuneiform writing.When in
6th century BC the Aramaic language and alphabet
arose, the use of clay dclined ,because it does not able
to adopt the Aramaic characters.
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6. The Papyrus roll is of equal antiquity as clay tablet. Egyptians leatned
to make beautiful writing material from papyrus plant.
In ancient Egypt is grew abundantly in the shallows of
Nile delta. The stem of the plant is 3 feet to 10 feet in length,
triangular.Egyptinas used its stem as a writing material .
The papyrus is a form of rush . To make a scroll. Stips are
cut down the lengh of the plant the broader ones laid side by side
to form a rectangle, and others are laid across at the right angles.
By a process of wetting and pressure sometimes with added
adhesives , the two layers bind. They are then hammared flat and
dried in the sun.After that the upper side is polished with a piece
of ivory or a shell.
Almost every books in the ancient civilizations of
Egypt , Greece and Rome is a papyrus scroll of this type.This
material is one of the most important material in the history of
writing
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7. Chinese characters at this early period are
written in vertical columns, so a thin strip of
bamboo is ideal for a single column. To create a
longer document, two lines of thread link each
bamboo strip to its neighbour. The modern
Chinese character for a book evolves from a
pictogram of bamboo strips threaded together.
Bamboo books survive from as early as about
400 BC. The records indicate that they were in
use at least 1000 years earlier, in the Shang
dynasty.
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8. In many parts of the ancient world people carry renewable
notebooks. They are small tablets with a waxed surface.
After being written on, the wax can be warmed and
smoothed over for use on another occasion.
Scribes, in all civilizations, are adept at making use of local
materials. Palm trees provide the leaves of documents in
parts of India. The earliest known Buddhist texts are on
strips of birch bark. When the Romans are in Britain, far
from their usual supplies of papyrus, they make thin
veneer-like tablets from English trees for their
correspondence. Many have been found in the region of
Hadrian's Wall, including a Birthday invitation from a
woman to her sister.
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9. 
During the 2nd century BC people in the region of
the Mediterranean begin using a much more
expensive alternative to papyrus. The substance is
parchment (the word derives from a variation of
Pergamum). It is a form of leather.
 In the second centyry AD parchment entered into
cmpetition with papyrus . In 3rd and 4th centuries
papyrus abled to inproove itself with introduction
of a finer quality of parchment.
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10. Chinese tradition attributes one of the most
wide-reaching of inventions to a eunuch at the
imperial court, by the name of Cai Lun, in the
year AD 105. Paper may have invented by him
but it took 1000 years to reach Europe.
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11. Like it had been almost every where, the
earliest writing materials in India were stone
and metal plate. Stone pillers ‘stambha’ were
used extensively to write inscriptin. Copper
Tamra used as a writing material (ink) in the
stone . Literacy evidence also showed that
boards of wood Falaka Samputa inscribed
with chalk also served for writing records.
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12. We can segment the writing materials of India
into two types -
 Ancient Hard writing Material
 Ancient Soft writing Materials
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13. Ancient hard writing materials contains -
 Stone
 Metal
 Shell
 Bricks
 Earthenware
 Terracotta
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14. Ancient Soft writing materials includes -
 Wooden Board
 Birch-Bark
 Palm liaves
 Leather cloth
 Paper
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15.  Stone – Stone engravings were made on caves smoothed or rough
pillars, slabs , lids of vases etc. These ate dealt with official ,
private records.
 Metal – Commonly gold, silver, brass, bronze, copper , iron were
used as writing material
 Shells – Specimens of some inscribe- shells have been discovered
from the ruins of Buddhist establishment in Srikakulam, district of
AndhraPradesh
 Bricks,Earthenware ,terracotta - In ancient times bricks,
earthenware and terracotta were also used as writing materials.
Bricks and earthen ware were generally scrached before being
dried or backed.
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16.  Wooden Board – About 5th century B.C. the wooden board
was used for writing purpose. Writing on it could be done
with a piece of chalk . This method was used for teaching .
 Birch-bark – This inner bark of bhurja (Betala utlis) tree was
the most popular material for writing manuscript ,
especially in northan –western India. Accoding to the
records, in central and northan India , people used the birch
bark. They take a piece one yard long, and as broad as the
outstreched fingersof the hand, or somewhat less and
prepare it in various ways . Thit oil and polish it , so as to
make it hard and smooth and thy write on it.
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17.  Palm – leaves – In southern India , plam –
leaves or ‘tali’ Were widely used for writing
manuscript, especially in a slender tree like the
coconut palms. They call these leaves ‘tali’ and
write on them .To bind a book of this leaves
together by a cord on which they are arranged,
the cord going through all the leaves by a
whole in the middle of each.They write the
tittle of a book at the end of it, not at the
beginning.
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18.  Leather – Leather was rarely used as writing material in India,
but in early and medieval times it was predominant in western
Asia and Europe.
 Cloth - Smooth and non – porous cotton was also used as
writing material in Ancient India.
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19.  Paper - Papermaking has traditionally been traced to China
when Cai Lun, an official attached to the Imperial court during the
Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), created a sheet of paper using
mulberry and other bast fibres along with fishnets, old rags, and
hemp waste,[ though the earliest piece of paper found, at
Fangmatan in Gansu province inscribed with a map, dates from
179-41 BC.
Papermaking reached Europe as early as 1085 in Toledo
and was firmly established in Xàtiva, Spain by 1150. It
is clear that France had a paper mill by 1190, and by
1276 mills were established in Fabriano, Italy and in
Treviso and other northern Italian towns by 1340.
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20. In India, the first paper industry was developed in Kashmir,
established by Sultan Zainul Abedin (Shahi Khan) of Kashmir in
1417-67 AD ."Soon, because of its quality, the Kashmiri paper was
much in demand in the world and the rest of the country for writing
manuscripts
 Indian Paper Manufacture Centers
With the rapid demand of writing materials the paper making centers
were established in different parts of the country like in Sialkot (Punjab);
Zafarabad in district Jaunpur (Oudh); Bihar Sharif in district Azimabad
(Patna) and Arwal in district Gaya (Bihar); Murshidabad and Hooghly
(Bengal) ; Ahmedabad, Khambat and Patan (Gujarat) ; and Aurangabad
and Mysore in the south.
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21.  The techniques of papermaking were essentially the same throughout
the country, differing only in the preparation of pulp from different
materials.
 According to Rahman, "the process of making paper from waste
paper was not very difficult. The waste paper was torn to pieces,
sorted according to colour, moistened with water, taken to the river
and pounded with stones, and washed for three days. It was then
taken to a cistern about 7ft x 4ftx 4ft deep, half - filled with water.
The pulp was thrown into this cistern. When it was thoroughly
dissolved, the workman sitting on the edge of the pit, bending over
the water, took in both hands the square frame which held the
screen serving as a sieve, passed it underwater and drew it slowly
and evenly to the surface; such that, as the water passed through, a
uniform film of pulp was left on the screen. The screen was then
lifted up and turned over, and the film of paper was spread on a rag
cushion
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22. When sufficient layers had been heaped on this
cushion, about 9-14 inches high, a rag was spread
over them and a plank weighted with heavy
stones was laid over it. When this pressure had
drained the water and some of the moisture out
of the stock of paper, the stones were taken away
and two men, one standing at each end of the
plank, see-sawed over the bundle of paper by
hand. When it was well pressed the paper was
peeled off, layer after layer, and spread to dry
either on the walls of the building or on rags laid
in the sun. When dried, each sheet was laid on
the polished wooden board and rubbed with a
shell till it shone.
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23.  The handmade glazed paper was a remarkable
product of medieval India. Bark and leaves of
trees, silk or cotton clothes, planks, leather and
parchment formed this paper. This paper was
not only used in India but also exported to
other countries. But nowadays the handmade
paper industry is declining rapidly. Only a few
areas are still there which produce handmade
quality paper.
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