Wanted to share this video that was posted on the ctamil list. Dr. Jayabarathi describes how panai olai was used, prepared and protected. It is fascinating.. also, he says our "pillaiyar suzhi" was just a scribble initially used only to check whether the "panai olai" was well-prepared for writing ("padham pakkaradhu").. how it ended up being called pillaiyar chuzhi is a mystery.. I guess some pious scribe or a poor student decided to use the testing doodle as a prayer to pillaiyar!