[INDOLOGY] Examples of very ambiguous devanagari Sanskrit sentences

[C.A. Formigatti]

Dear list members,

Although many colleagues more qualified than me already answered to 
Harry Spier's request, I would like to add a few remarks, above all to 
Dermot Killingley's insightful reply, and to Dhaval Patel's answer.

> But the practice of writing spaces in devanagari i=
> s itself relatively
> recent. I haven't any firm evidence, but I understand it came in with 
> prin=
> ting, around 1800. So
> the demand to write spaces in roman only where they would be written in 
> de=
> vanagari is not
> supported by ancient tradition. The rule for both is the same: write 
> space=
> s where you can.

Actually, the practice of leave blank spaces in Brahmi-derived scripts 
to disambiguate the meaning is attested in manuscripts well before 
1800—and in inscriptions as well. In order to answer the question as to 
when the use of blanks or the practice of using the avagraha started, 
one has to take into account many different factors, for instance the 
use of different type of scripts and not only nagari, the function of 
the text etc. For instance, in manuscripts written in Nepalaksara you 
may find different practices, according to the type of manuscript and 
the text(s) it contains. For instance, in relatively recent manuscripts 
(17th-19th century) you might find that in order to disambiguate the 
meaning, even the sandhi is not always applied, often in manuscripts 
containing Buddhist texts written by Newar scribes, i.e. manuscripts 
written in a specific cultural milieu for a specific readership. 
Moreover, the use of the avagraha is not always consistent, and you can 
find it alongside forms written simply in scriptio continua (the latter 
case occurs more often). This remarks might not apply, for instance, to 
Jaina manuscripts written in the Jaina nagari, to Kashmirian manuscripts 
in Sarada or even more to South Indian manuscripts in Grantha or 
Malayalam.

> Let's fix the earliest date when avagraha made appearance.
> Randomly picking up my manuscript copies shows that avagraha was
> prevalent in 1574 vikrama saMvat (around 1497-98 AD roughly) for sure.
> So, it is not too modern a phenomenon.

A very useful book about this topic is K. Einicke's Korrektur, 
Differenzierung und Abkuerzung in indischen Inschriften und 
Handschriften. However, in order to assess with certainty when the 
different signs and symbols started to be used, one needs a very wide 
set of data, which was not the purpose of this study. And again, the 
introduction and use of the avagraha might depend on the script.

> Also see the use of avagraha to do vicCeda of sandhi in the commentary
> above the verse lines.

This is a different type of sign, with a different function, namely 
viccheda, as correctly stated. It occurs more often in manuscripts than 
one would suppose, and in fact there is a whole range of signs with this 
functions used in manuscripts written in different scripts, not only in 
nagari. Again, I would refer to K. Einicke's study.

Best wishes,

Camillo Formigatti