The Contribution of Buddhist Monks in the Preparation of Palm Leaf Manuscripts

Abstract

In the past, writing on palm leaf manuscripts has been a rich and enduring tradition in Sri Lanka, and these manuscripts are among the country's foremost historical sources. However, natural palm leaves are not suitable for scribing, and it is a challenging task to make them suitable for writing. Several steps must be taken to writing a palm leaf manuscript, from marking the palm tree for palm leaves to writing on the palm leaf using a steel point and blackening it. The contribution of Buddhist monks in this respect has been very high since ancient times, from the first century B.C. The leaf was the normal material on which Sri Lankan books were written. However, a review of investigations, research articles, and surveys on the subject showed that there was no discussion of Buddhist monks' potential contributions to many aspects of the process of creating palm leaf manuscripts. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate in detail the contribution of Buddhist monks to the preparation of palm leaf manuscripts. Sources such as books, journal articles, conference papers, websites and case studies published on palm leaf manuscripts were used to conduct this literature review. All literature selected for research was analysed based on the process of preparing palm leaf manuscripts. After the Tripitaka was written completely in the text on the palm leaves in the first century BC at Aluvihara (also known as Alokavihara in Pali), many palm leaf manuscripts were prepared and spread throughout the island. In Sri Lanka, a lot of Tipitaka manuscripts are written in the Pali language using Sinhalese characters. It is evident from the analytical literature that both laypeople and priests worked at the temple to prepare the palm leaf manuscripts. However, the study revealed that Buddhist monks have made significant contributions to the writing of palm leaf manuscripts in Sri Lanka and that the preparation of palm leaf manuscripts is a Buddhist religious activity. Large-scale religious writing first appeared in the country when Ven. Buddhaghosa composed the Aṭṭhakathā (commentaries) in the fifth century AD. The Buddhist manuscripts such as Chullavaggaya and Visuddhimaggaṭīkā, Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna-suttha, Abhidhammapiṭaka, Dhammapada atthakatha, Dhammapada, Dighanikaya, Theragāthā and Vimānavatthu show that the Buddhist monks have contributed to the creation of Buddhist manuscripts by widely using palm leaves.