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Palm leaf manuscripts (Tamil: ஓலைச் சுவடி, Oriya: ତାଳପ‌ତ୍ର ପୋଥି, Kannada: ತಾಳೆಗರಿ, Sinhala: පුස්කොළ ලෙඛන, Javanese: rontal, Indonesian: lontar) are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. They served as the paper of the ancient world in parts of Asia as far back as the 5th century BCE. and possibly much earlier. They were used to record actual and mythical narratives in South Asia and in South East Asia. Initially knowledge was passed down orally, but after the invention of alphabets and their diffusion throughout South Asia, people eventually began to write it down in dried and smoke treated palm leaves of Palmyra palm or talipot palm.

More information on the Wikipedia page [1]. The Wikimedia Commons link is [2]. A British Library post on their storage and preservation is here.

An article on some undeciphered palm leaf manuscripts is here.

There are a range of websites on palm leaf manuscripts, describing specific examples or more generally, and with some being of a fringe nature.

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