Why not a definitive devnagri font

[Dominik Wujastyk]

Birgit Kellner said:
> 
> [...] all sorts of systems (nobody mentioned OS/2
> as yet, [...]

I have been using OS/2 as my main platform for several years, and I
think it combines the very best qualities of Windows, DOS, and Unix in a
single product.  It is very stable (never crashes) and a wonderful
platform for communications of all sorts.  A happy customer.

Dominik Wujastyk


> Hence, I would strongly suggest that, until the
> current lcd is replaced by one which allows for Devanagari, let's stick to
> the present conventions. 

Yes, indeed.

The issue of Devanagari representation of Sanskrit text is, in any case,
not of great importance in contemporary indological scholarship.
Indologists are all used to reading and writing books, journals, and
indeed entire Sanskrit texts, in romanization.  And historically, of
course, Devanagari is not by any means the only script that has been
used to record Sanskrit.  It is attractive and "natural" in a way, but
romanization also has its advantages for representing certain linguistic
and semantic features.

I do think, however, that since Devanagari is now so easy to typeset,
some of the journals like BSOAS, JAOS, JRAS, IIJ, etc., might consider
admitting the use of Devanagari in some articles, if desired.

Dominik Wujastyk