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WRITING-TIIE BEGINNINCS 109 advantage of suicide, then, for each letter in the writing, he commits an offence.'
It is evident, therefore, that writing was in vogue at the time these passages were composed : that it was made use of for the publication of official notices, and for the communication by way of letter between private individuals: that the ability to write was a possible and honourable source of livelihood : that the knowledge of writing was not confined to any particular class, but was acquired by ordinary folk, and by women: and that it was sufficiently prevalent to have been made the basis of a game for children. A long period, probably centuries, must have elapsed between the date when writing first becaine known to the few, and the date when such a stage could have been reached.
But it is a long step from the use of writing for such notifications, public or private, to the use of it for the purpose of writing down any books, inuch less an extensive literature. And the very same texts we have just quoted show, and show in a manner equally indisputable, that, for such purposes, writing, however well known, had not yet come into use.
For if books had been known and used in India at the period in question, then the manuscripts themselves, and the whole industry connected with
Vin. iii. 76. The expression used for writing is here likham inimui, "scratches a writing." From this Bühler (Indische Päliorarhiip. SS) concludes that the material implied is wood. But the reference is to scratching with a style on a leaf.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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