The scribes penned down the text using stylus by etching characters onto the processed palm leaves and when done, applied soot over the letters for readability. Since they were written on organic materials, the manuscripts were elaborately rewritten time to time to preserve the content.

A recent survey conducted by the Institute of Asian Studies, Madras reports that there are about a 100,000 palm leaf manuscripts surviving in South India alone and majority of them scattered across the globe. These manuscripts lie unattended and are on the verge of destruction through dampness, pests and most importantly, ignorance of the ones who possess it.