[INDOLOGY] Spaces between words in Sanskrit manuscripts?

Tue May 15 16:40:04 UTC 2018

Hello Camillo,

     There is something new to learn.  I noticed your statement: "in many
more manuscripts than we might think the non-application of external sandhi
is used to mark word boundaries.".  I have not come across such
manuscripts, but evidently you have.  Can you give a reference to such a
manuscript, or give us a scan of a page from such a manuscript.  Except for
the Padapāṭha manuscripts, I am not aware of this practice.  With best
wishes,

Madhav Deshpande
Campbell, California

On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 9:19 AM, Camillo Formigatti <
camillo.formigatti at bodleian.ox.ac.uk> wrote:

> Dear McComas
>
>
>
> As you might have gathered from the various replies, I’m afraid your
> student asked a question which cannot really be answered, at least not
> yet—South Asian codicology is still in its cradle. As already pointed out
> in this thread, blank spaces were used already in Asokan inscriptions. In
> my modest opinion, the question cannot be easily answered also because we
> always have to distinguish between scripts and local usages. Moreover,
> other strategies were employed in manuscripts to achieve the same
> objective, for instance in many more manuscripts than we might think the
> non-application of external sandhi is used to mark word boundaries. Also,
> the word dividers mentioned by Andrew are very widespread in all kind of
> Northern Indian manuscripts, above all of Gebrauchstexte and famous works
> which were read for teaching purposes. On the other hand, if I’m not wrong
> (my expertise in this field is very limited), South Indian scripts tend to
> have less punctuation and dividing marks than Northern Indian scripts.
>
>
>
> You can get a good idea of such topics in the following book:
>
>
>
> Einicke, Katrin. *Korrektur, Differenzierung Und Abkürzung in Indischen
> Inschriften und Handschriften*. Abhandlungen Für Die Kunde Des
> Morgenlandes ; Bd. 68. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009.
>
>
>
> As to older manuscripts, I think this article is also very useful:
>
>
>
> The Poetic and Prosodic Aspect of the Page. Forms and Graphic Artifices of
> Early Indic Buddhist Manuscripts in a Historical Perspective
>
> Scherrer-Schaub, Cristina
>
> DOI (Chapter): https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110543100-009
>
>
>
> I hope this is helpful.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> Camillo
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> Dr Camillo A. Formigatti
>
> John Clay Sanskrit Librarian
>
>
>
> Bodleian Libraries
>
> The Weston Library
>
> Broad Street, Oxford
>
> OX1 3BG
>
>
>
> Email: camillo.formigatti at bodleian.ox.ac.uk
>
> Tel. (office): 01865 (2)77208
> www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
>
>
>
> *GROW YOUR MIND*
>
> in Oxford University’s
>
> Gardens, Libraries and Museums
>
> www.mindgrowing.org
>
>
>
> *From:* Jonathan Silk [mailto:kauzeya at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* 15 May 2018 09:28
> *To:* Tieken, H.J.H. <H.J.H.Tieken at hum.leidenuniv.nl>
> *Cc:* Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu>; McComas Taylor <
> McComas.Taylor at anu.edu.au>; indology <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Spaces between words in Sanskrit manuscripts?
>
>
>
> Alluded to earlier is what happens in Aśoka's inscriptions, studied in
> detail by Klaus Ludwig Janert:  Abstände und Schlussvokalverzeichnungen
> in Aśoka-Inschriften, Wiesbaden, : F. Steiner, 1972 . Verzeichnis der
> orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland. Supplementband ; 10. Some of
> the VOHD is available online free, but apparently not this volume, as far
> as I see from a cursory search. This work was much reviewed, and has an
> English introduction, so even if you cannot read German it is not difficult
> to discover his main points.
>
>
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 8:15 AM, Tieken, H.J.H. via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> A few years ago I have edited and translated Tamil letters sent from
> Ceylon to Cape Town in South Africa between 1728-1737. It concerns private
> correspondence: mother (dictated to brother-in-law), brothers, in-laws
> writing to Nicolaas Ondaatje, who had been banished by the Dutch to the
> Cape. The letters do not show any trace of interspacing. The initial vowel
> of a word is attached to the final consonant of the preceding word (if that
> word happens to end with a consonant). The letters lack punctuation and
> there is no spacing between sentences. There is also no division into
> paragraphs; a new paragraph may simply start in the middle of the line.
> However, not infrequently the first letter of a new paragraph is larger
> than the others (influence from Dutch?).
>
> Herman
>
>
>
> Herman Tieken
>
> Stationsweg 58
>
> 2515 BP Den Haag
>
> The Netherlands
>
> 00 31 (0)70 2208127
>
> website: hermantieken.com
> ------------------------------
>
> *Van:* INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info] namens Madhav
> Deshpande via INDOLOGY [indology at list.indology.info]
> *Verzonden:* dinsdag 15 mei 2018 6:43
> *Aan:* McComas Taylor
> *CC:* indology
> *Onderwerp:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Spaces between words in Sanskrit manuscripts?
>
> Dear McComas,
>
>
>
>      This must have happened gradually after the Sanskrit Pundits were
> exposed to English printing.  Even the early Sanskrit printed texts in the
> form of pothis did not separate words.  I have many such old printed
> materials.  I have attached a sample page.  If this practice continued into
> early printing, it is simply because the printing style was copying the
> writing style of the manuscripts.  I have photographs of a few texts that
> were hand written by the famous Pandit Vasudeva Shastri Abhyankar where I
> do not see gaps between the words.  Early pothis of Vedic texts printed by
> the Nirnaya Sagara Press also do not show any gaps between words.
>
>
>
> Madhav Deshpande
>
> Campbell, California
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 14, 2018 at 9:02 PM, McComas Taylor via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Dear colleagues
>
>
>
> A student has asked me a questions I cannot answer:  'When did scribes
> begin to insert spaces between words in Sanskrit manuscripts?'
>
>
>
> Can any of you learned folk help us out?
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>
>
> McComas
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> McComas Taylor, SFHEA
> Associate Professor, Reader in Sanskrit
> College of Asia and the Pacific
> The Australian National University, Tel. + 61 2 6125 3179
> Website: https://sites.google.com/site/mccomasanu/
>
> Address: Baldessin Building 4.24, ANU, ACT 0200
>
>
>
> Ask me about my new project:
>
> *'Translating the Viṣṇu Purāṇa'*
>
>
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> --
>
> J. Silk
> Leiden University
>
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>
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>
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>

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