[INDOLOGY] transliteration of proper nouns

[dermot at grevatt.force9.co.uk]

Dear Herman,

My practice is to spell the name as the subject spells it when writing in English: Rammohun 
Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen, Aurobindo Ghose. There may be cases of doubt where the 
subject spells it in several ways, but the same is true of William Shakespeare, so it's not a 
new problem. For those who didn't write in English, I spell it as was spelt by comtemporaries, 
e.g. Dayananda Saraswati.

The same goes for Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, etc.

Consequently, I don't put diacritics -- unless the subject usually spells it with diacritics, which 
is most unlikely.

On the first occurrence of the name, it may useful t add the Sanskrit form in exact 
transliteration, to explain to Sanskritists what the name means, which may be significant for 
the family's religious and caste affiliation.  

Not long ago there was a practice in library catalogues of sanskritizing names, e.g. Kesava 
Candra Sena, Aravinda Ghosa. That's inconsistent, since librarians gave up latinizing 
European names centuries ago. It's also open to the charge of objectifying the other and 
denying him/her a voice.

I hope your project goes well.

With best wishes,

Dermot (Killingley)


On 27 Feb 2015 at 19:51, Herman Tull wrote:

I am engaged in a project that will draw on a few proper nouns from 
nineteenth century India, many of which are Bengali. Is there a 
transliteration standard used in modern published works for older 
Indic proper nouns, particularly those that exist in print in 
"unusual" forms? In other words, does one follow the "old" Bengali 
spellings, or revise them to follow Sanskritized versions?

Thus, e.g., Keshub Chandra Sen, or, Keshub Chunder Sen? 


Also, are diacriticals used for proper nouns? Vivekananda, or, 
Vivekananda?


And, again, are diacriticals used for organizations? Arya Samaj or 
Arya Samaj


For all other Sanskrit elements, the project does use diacriticals 
(e.g., Puraa)


Any guidance is appreciated!

Herman

--
Herman Tull
Princeton, NJ

-- 
Dermot Killingley
9, Rectory Drive,
Gosforth,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1XT
Phone (0191) 285 8053