| Ancient periods depended more on the manual | | | | However, a shortcoming on the latter part |
| works rather than upon machinery and it | | | | proved beneficial in terms of interpolations |
| reflected on the ancient literatures as well; | | | | and textual variants. But a lot of people |
| prints, being more recent a phenomenon, like | | | | hold counter-opinions regarding the limited |
| many other ancient texts, Bengali books also | | | | knowledge of the language of certain scribes |
| used to be handwritten. A sharp contrast to | | | | for denoting the date of the creation in |
| the run-of-the-mill trend, these copies were | | | | verse riddles instead of numerical figures |
| made on demand and required special skills. | | | | required a lot of talent and depth. |
| | | | |
| The handwritten scripts are called pandulipi | | | | A pnuthi has a certain anatomy; while the |
| in Bengali; the material on which they were | | | | chief portion comprised the main body text, |
| inscribed was either grey or pale yellow in | | | | the part where the scribe used to flaunt his |
| color. This is one of the reasons behind the | | | | own wordsmithry comprise of the following |
| name pandulipi, since pandu stands for yellow | | | | parts: |
| in Bangla and lipi, for writing. | | | | |
| | | | Bhonita or pre-amble: Describes the name of |
| The material used to be specially processed | | | | the book and the writer; a variant of |
| leather, leaves or barks from trees; during | | | | Pushpika. |
| the latter times i.e. the medieval period, | | | | |
| paper made from cotton-pulps, hemp, and | | | | Pushpika or colophon: Generally found on the |
| linseed showed up. | | | | first leaf, at the end of the chapter or act, |
| | | | and on the last folio, the Pushpika is a |
| This facilitated the making of large sheets, | | | | short, composite work made of a brief |
| which were then cut to the required size and | | | | autobiography of the writer, the name of the |
| tied together with strings to give it the | | | | puthi, the date of writing/copying and the |
| appearance of a book, with two firm boards | | | | name of the person who is the provider of the |
| sufficing for covers. | | | | task. |
| | | | |
| The Pnuthis so far discovered in Bengal have | | | | When it is on the first folio or at the end |
| Sanskrit or Bangla as the language; those | | | | of a chapter or an act, the Pushpika contains |
| written in Bangla used the old Bangla Script. | | | | the names of the scribe and the book whereas |
| | | | in last folio, the former content is placed |
| Inscribed by the professional scribes of | | | | along with the dates of writing or copying. |
| yore, they also used to add their personal | | | | |
| details at the end of the pnuthi as a kind of | | | | Being treasures of immense value, nowadays, |
| an acknowledgement or disclaimer, from which, | | | | many of the educational institutions are |
| it was discovered that a lot of Muslims also | | | | preserving the original ones and making |
| earn their livelihood through the profession. | | | | microfilms out of them; though the act shall |
| | | | preserve these great works of art for many |
| A good handwriting was the primary criteria | | | | more days to come, nothing can be done now |
| and so was accuracy, but without a good | | | | regarding bringing back the scribes, who have |
| knowledge on the language, the first two | | | | now become extinct due to the industrial |
| qualities were considered to be vain. | | | | advancements. |