Bali's ancient lontar are identical in concept to the palm-leaf
manuscripts of India. By some estimates, 50,000 ancient lontar
manuscripts are held by the priests, scholars and ordinary
Hindus of Bali, passed down from their ancestors. These were the
books and ledgers of their day, used for everything from the
Vedas and Agamas to the epics to land records. In Bali we find
lontar on religion, holy scriptures, prominent rituals, family
lineages, law codes, medicine, arts, architecture, calendars,
poetry, prose, black magic and even the rules for cock-fighting.
Many of these palm-leaf manuscripts are kept in beautifully
hand-crafted wood boxes and cleaned and worshiped yearly on
Saraswati Puja. Though many Balinese Hindus have lontar in their
homes, few understand their contents. The language of most is
Kawi, also known as Old Javanese; a few are in Sanskrit. Dr.
Nyoman Catra, who heads the lontar digitization project at the
Dwijendra Foundation, explained that the texts date back as far
as the 9th century ce. T