[INDOLOGY] Request

[Marco Franceschini]

Dear Johannes, dear list members,

I am forwarding the following message on behalf of prof. Torella.
–––

Dear Johannes,

I can confirm what Marco said on the ground of my own experience with Malayalam mss. at Kariyavattom. The 'cryptographic code' is basically analogous to the prastāra, i.e. the arrangement of the phonemes that  the single school may use to instruct their own adepts on how to form the various mantras (mantroddhāra). This practice is however far from being frequent.

Best regards
Raffaele

Prof. Raffaele Torella
Chair of Sanskrit
Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali
Sapienza Università di Roma
www.scribd.com/raffaeletorella
www.academia.edu/raffaeletorella

<<<

Il giorno 30/apr/2016, alle ore 09:12, Marco Franceschini <franceschini.marco at fastwebnet.it> ha scritto:

> Dear Johannes,
> 
> although it’s very far from Tibet, it appears that in Kerala a particular letter-numeral systems was used as a ‘cryptographic code’ through which only the initiated in the system were able to reorder the intentionally jumbled folios of a manuscript. On this, see Renou/Filliozat, L’Inde classique, p. 708.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Marco Franceschini
> ———————————
> Fixed-term Researcher
> University of Bologna
> Department of History and Cultures
> via Zamboni 33 - 40126 Bologna - Italy
> marco.franceschini3 at unibo.it
> ---
> 
> 
> Il giorno 29/apr/2016, alle ore 18:51, Johannes Bronkhorst <Johannes.Bronkhorst at unil.ch> ha scritto:
> 
>> Dear friends and colleagues,
>> A friend asked me to post the following question:
>> 
>> From Amy Heller (tibetologist):  I am currently studying a 408 page
>> 11th-12th century Tibetan Prajnaparamita from Tholing whose page numbering
>> does not conform to the specifics of W Tibetan manuscripts - there are many
>> "small" aberrant details , although the numbering is on the whole legible. A
>> colleague suggested to me that this is a reflection, perhaps,  of an Indian
>> tradition to conceal accurate numbering from the eyes of infidels,
>> presumably in vigor in N India, ca 10th-12th c (in Hindu and Buddhist
>> circles) to conceal from potential Muslim eyes??  I asked an Indian friend
>> (curator in an art museum) who  did not know of this tradition at all, nor
>> was I aware of it. Is this spurious or genuine? Feedback would be most
>> appreciated, thanks!
>> 
>> Johannes Bronkhorst
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> 
> 
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