Ramacaritamanas in Nagari/Nastaliq

[Frances Pritchett]

On Tue, 19 Mar 1996 P.Friedlander at wellcome.ac.uk wrote:

> I have recently seen a manuscript of the Ramacaritamanasa copied in AD 1819 
> which is in both Nagari and Nastaliq scripts, each page being in two columns,
>  one for each script.
> I've never seen anything like it before.
> I wonder if anyone else has ever seen similar dual script manuscripts of 
> famous Hindi works, or for that matter other NIA or Sanskrit works?
> Dr Peter G. Friedlander
> Cataloguer of Hindi and Panjabi Manuscripts
> Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
> 183 Euston Road
> London NW1 2BN
> England
> e-mail: P.Friedlander at wellcome.ac.uk
> 

I have seen a few examples of the same kind of two-script texts, mostly in
the Hindi-Urdu popular (printed) pamphlet narrative genre of qissah
(kissA).  The ones I have seen are mostly a late-nineteenth-century
phenomenon.

It is extremely common in this genre for the same stories (either almost
word-for-word or roughly the same plot) to circulate in both scripts;
often the same publisher will publish versions of popular tales in both
scripts (e.g., *baitAl paccIsI*, or *ArA'ish-e maHfil ya`nI qiSSah-e hAtim
t:A'I*, or *totA mainA*).  But it is very rare for them to be even bundled
together, much less bound together.

Even then, all the ones I have seen are sequential.  I haven't seen any
done as you describe, in two columns.  I wonder who would buy it, and how
it would be used.

Sorry to reply so late... exams are finally over and I have time to
breathe :)

Yours cordially,
Fran Pritchett