November 2019 - Indic-texts

variant line-start-hyphen-like-long-mātrā
by Dominik Wujastyk 18 Nov '19

18 Nov '19

Here's an interesting alternate form: End of line "sādhayāmi maha": [image: image.png] Beginning of next line: [image: image.png] The reading should be "sādhayāmi mahārasaṃ|| 97". It looks as if the scribe here has failed to make the "ha" at the end of the first line dīrgha, so he's compensated at the start of the next line with that avagraha-like sign. Is it meant to be a "2", for "2-mātras" maybe? Has anyone else seen this scribal usage? Best, Dominik

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Devanagari hyphen
by Dominik Wujastyk 15 Nov '19

15 Nov '19

I've got some manuscripts that use a line-ending filler, a bit like the Roman-script hyphen. In one case, I think it explains a false reading in an apograph. My B witness (pṛṣṭhamātra but undated) reads [image: image.png] That's yasya with a line-filling character that looks like a daṇḍa. But it isn't a daṇḍa. The nearest thing I can call it is a scribe's hyphen. The line below, pra- is the same. The full word is pra-bhākaraḥ. It wouldn't be right to transcribe as daṇḍa. But more to the point, I want to record that this Devanāgarī "hyphen" suggests that the reading yasyā in witness U is a crux showing U to be an apograph of B. I've inserted an explanatory <note> into the transcription of B at this point: yasya|<note anchored="true" type="comment on reading">This end-of-line daṇḍa may show that the yasyā reading in U proves U to be an apograph.</note><lb/> But there must be a better way of expressing all this. Any ideas? Best, Dominik

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encoding/transcribing the bhale symbol
by Charles Li 04 Nov '19

04 Nov '19

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has been encoding/transcribing the bhale symbol, and how you represent it. It doesn't seem to have made it into Unicode yet. As a follow-up to that, I was wondering if it was possible to set up a section of IndicTexts TEIWiki to document encoding/transcribing practices in current and past projects. I've thought a few times about putting together a document that just lists the different ways people have transcribed pṛṣṭhamātrās, virāmas, etc. that isn't covered in any specification. Best, Charles

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