[INDOLOGY] Devanagari v and b in manuscripts from Kashmir

Sun Feb 26 10:49:46 UTC 2023

Dear Harry,

the matter is more complex:

1st, your MS,  obviously a copy of a Śāradā MS,  is written in the typical Kashmiri style Devanagari of the mid-late 19th century; it has many North Indian peculiarities, besides the v/b case, such as the abundance of Anusvāra dots, not typical for Kashmiri Śāradā MSS that write homorganic nasals.

2nd, Śāradā MSS distinguish between v (looks like Nāgarī v) and b, where the more squarish, circle-like part is set lower, at the bottom of the line.
Good Vedic Devanāgarī MSS also distinguish between v and b:  v is indicated by writing Nāgarī v with underdot.

3rd “standard" North Indian practice (as described in earlier posts) is another matter.

Best,

Michael

Michael Witzel
Wales Research Prof. of Sanskrit (=Emeritus)
Dept. of South Asian Studies, Harvard University
witzel at fas.harvard.edu
www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm
Residence: Yokohama, Japan

On Feb 26, 2023, at 1:04 PM, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Thank you to Howard Resnick, Charles DiSimone, and Tom Cahill who confirmed off-list that he has seen the same thing in N. Indian manuscripts.
Harry Spier

On Sat, Feb 25, 2023 at 11:31 AM Howard Resnick <hr at ivs.edu<mailto:hr at ivs.edu>> wrote:
In Bengali, and even in the standard Bengali-English Samsad dictionary, b and v are given as the same letter.

On Feb 25, 2023, at 9:14 AM, Charles DiSimone via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:

Dear Harry Spier,

I'm not sure when ba became a dedicated akṣara within the Devanāgarī script, but what you describe has been the norm for Brahmic script manuscript transmissions over history.

All my best,
Charles

Dr. Charles DiSimone
Department of Languages and Cultures
Ghent University

On Sat, Feb 25, 2023 at 2:57 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
Dear list members,
I'm looking at a manuscript from the Ragunath Temple Sanskrit Manuscript Library, Jammu, j&K. The text is  ajñānadvāntadīpikā by somanātha
The link to the pdf on archive.org<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__archive.org_&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=tFXzIbyKS2C0TpVqKsMrj46qwsAermBN5wzaDe51So0&m=nBrjyL62xDuQCVJuuz9EqUwjRZAmOoO3cxq514GT0xMUUB2Xz5UdD2EqtSrQ4dfr&s=XxATidz8sYLwi_fC0C5uWkKsxGlNDIZoubvQxQZF5MY&e=> is:
https://archive.org/download/AgyanDhvantaDeepikaShriSomnath4966Alm22Shlf4DevanagariTantra/Agyan%20Dhvanta%20Deepika%20-%20Shri%20Somnath_4966_Alm_22_Shlf_4_Devanagari-%20Tantra.pdf<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_download_AgyanDhvantaDeepikaShriSomnath4966Alm22Shlf4DevanagariTantra_Agyan-2520Dhvanta-2520Deepika-2520-2D-2520Shri-2520Somnath-5F4966-5FAlm-5F22-5FShlf-5F4-5FDevanagari-2D-2520Tantra.pdf&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=tFXzIbyKS2C0TpVqKsMrj46qwsAermBN5wzaDe51So0&m=nBrjyL62xDuQCVJuuz9EqUwjRZAmOoO3cxq514GT0xMUUB2Xz5UdD2EqtSrQ4dfr&s=zX0YtmSUh2CfOrdyKVdf7rjyHwX6IEqjwlWIWsQncrQ&e=>

Looking at the first few lines it looks to me like the scribe is using the devanagari letter  व for both व and ब.  Is that common practice in devanagari manuscripts from kashmir?
Thanks,
Harry Spier

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