English: Palm leaf etching is a traditional form of art from Odisha. Palm leaves are dried, soaked in water, dried again and pressed to be made straight. A metallic (mostly Iron) stylus (called Lekhani in Odia) is used for writing on it. Natural colors (made from wood apple paste and charcoal) is applied on the written text or picture. After it is dried a wet cloth is used to clean the extra colors. These palm leaves then are punched and tied in the form of a book. Palm leaf manuscripts have text and pictures and contain mostly were used primarily for either religious text (Gita Govinda, Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc.) or Natal chart (Jataka) of people. It is believed the earliest text of Buddha jataka (Buddha's natal chart) and Charyapada were written in Odisha using palm leaf manuscipts.
This video was shot in w:Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati during Typography Day 2013 when master craftsman Maga Nayak from Raghurajpur, Puri, Odisha was displaying his work and the process publicly. It has 3 major segments;
A) Etching on palm leaf using a stylus.
B) Coloring the leaf
C) Cleaning and creating a manuscript.