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Nāgarí in Manuscripts (11th-13th Century A.D.)
The development of monumental Nāgarī script has been dealt with in the preceding pages, but without involving the manuscript-Nāgarī. The subject would remain incomplete without considering that area. It is attested from the description of Tiruvālangādu inscription, and Kurud plates, 2 that engraving on hard surfaces like stone, metal, terracotta objects, was the secondary use of the writing. So, any generalisation on account of such engravings can have only a limited validity. The basic materials for popular writing were palm-leaf, birch-bark, cloth, and later paper, on which the real palaeographic studies should be based, because it is only here that the real and original hand of the writer is found.
John Guy refers that “Paper made its appearance around the 12th century but did not displace palm-leaf until the 14th century.”3 Before that, in general, palm-leaf and birch-bark were used for writing the manuscripts. Of these the birch-bark was frequently employed in the Himalayan territories where the birch trees grew, naturally while in other parts of the country palm-leaf was more common. The choice of the writing materials mainly depended on the availability of materials and nature of the work. So far as the nature of the work is concerned books, accounts, and ordinary correspondence
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