Nadi Sastra

It is presumed that the Sapta Rishis (Seven Sages) had written the life patterns of each person on palm leaves along with their types of names by their Yogic Powers. (It seems that these Nadis were originally written on animal skins and some leaves and later they were copied on palm leaves. They are preserved by applying oil extracted from peacock's blood. )
These unique leaves were kept in the Saraswati Mahal' library of Tanjore city of Tamilnadu State in India. Later during the British Rule the British were very keen to acquire these types of ancient leaves dealing with herbal cure, alchemy, fortune-telling etc; but left some of the astrological leaves to their loyalists. Some were put to auction also. People belonging to a particular sect called Valluvar community who specialized in astrology bought these leaves. Some of these were acquired by the astrology families in Vaitheeswarankoil about 60 years ago from Thanjavur Saraswati Mahal Library.
The leaves were found lying idle in Vaitheeswarankoil by about the 13th century, the forefathers who found them realized their values and copied the contents on palm leaves and made exact replicas. These leaves have been handed down over generations to make predictions. They earned their livelihood through Nadi Astrology. It is a hereditary profession for them. They got trained from their elders to do Nadi reading. What is written on the leaves is read and explained by them. The language is poetic and the script is also different. It is the same as in the ancient temples.
Some of the Nadis are available in the Oriental Manuscripts Library at Chennai, India though in mutilated condition and the SaptaRishiNadi was published in Tamil in six volumes, lagna wise .
The Sanskrit texts were translated and written on palmyra or palm leaves in old archaic Tamil language.
There were some nadigranthas translated into another South Indian language like Telugu language. Marata King Sarabhoji and Chola Kings patronized this form of astrology and translations.
It is stated that Sage Agasthya had written it in Tamil. They have a certain amount of collection of leaves. For each thumb print there will be 6 granthas. In each grantha there will be 108 sizes and 12 parts according to Siva Nadi and 50 sizes in Agastyanadi that means for one thumbprint many stories of a person can be read. In Siva Nadi more details are given as discussion between Lord Siva and Parvati than in Agastya Nadi .