![Sinhala Ola (Palm) Leaf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Sinhala_Ola_%28Palm%29_Leaf.jpg)
Ola leaf is a palm leaf used for writing in traditional
palm-leaf manuscript
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed ...
s and in
fortunetelling
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...
(
horoscope
A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...
s) in
Southern India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...
and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. The leaves are from the
talipot
''Corypha umbraculifera'', the talipot palm, is a species of palm native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is a flowering plant with the largest inf ...
tree, a type of palm, and fortunes are written on them and read by fortune tellers. It is believed that three thousand years ago the seven rishis, sages, wrote everyone's fortunes on the leaves. The
National Library of Sri Lanka
National Library of Sri Lanka is a research and a reference library and the main library and information centre in Sri Lanka. It is located on Independence Avenue, Colombo.
History
The idea of a National Library for Sri Lanka initially emerge ...
holds an ola-leaf manuscript collection.
Sinhala letters
Sinhala numerals, are the units of the numeral system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Sinhala language in modern-day Sri Lanka.
Numerals or numerations around Kandyan Kingdom
It had been found that five different types of n ...
are round-shaped and are written from left to right. They are the most circular-shaped script found in the Indic scripts. The evolution of the script to the present shapes may have taken place due to writing on ola leaves. Unlike chiseling on a rock, writing on palm leaves has to be more round-shaped to avoid the stylus ripping the Palm leaf while writing on it. When drawing vertical or horizontal straight lines on Ola leaf, the leaves would have been ripped and this also may have influenced Sinhala not to have a period or full stop. Instead a stylistic stop which was known as ‘Kundaliya’ is used. Period and commas were later introduced into Sinhala script after the introduction of paper due to the influence of Western languages.
The ''
Mukkara Hatana
The Mukkara Hatana ("''The'' ''Mukkuvar War"'') is a 17th-century palm-leaf manuscript from Sri Lanka. Written in Sinhalese, the work celebrates the victory of the Karaiyars, also known as Karavas, over the Mukkuvars, who battled for the dominanc ...
'', an ola-leaf manuscript now in the British Museum states that
King Parakramabahu IV
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
granted it to the
Karavas
Karavas ( el, Καραβάς; tr, Alsancak is a town in the north of the Geography of Cyprus, Cyprus island. It is under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. , the town has a population of 6,597.
Etymology
The name ''Karavas'' comes fro ...
.
Etymology
The word Ola derives from the
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
word ''Ōlai'', meaning palm leaf.
See also
*
Borassus
''Borassus'' (palmyra palm) is a genus of five species of fan palms, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Papua New Guinea.
Description
These massive palms can grow up to high and have robust trunks with distinct leaf scars; in so ...
*
References
{{Writing
Palm trees in culture
Sri Lankan culture
Indian culture