[INDOLOGY] Devanagari v and b in manuscripts from Kashmir

[Harry Spier]

  I think there are two very different scenarios in the transcription of
manuscripts.
1) When a specialist in an indological field is looking at a small number
of manuscripts in a field he's studied for years or decades for some study
or some critical edition.  So he has the expertise and also probably
multiple manuscripts of the same text, so he has the data and the expertise
to make" the  benevolent interpretation of the Sanskrit text transmitted in
the witness"   Phillip Maas describes.

2) The second scenario is where a much larger number of manuscripts,
perhaps a portion of some collection, is being transcribed by multiple
non-specialist typists with various degrees of knowledge of sanskrit.
supervised by a professional sanskritist. But where the volume of texts
being transcribed is too large for every word to be checked by the
supervisor. In that case it seems to me the safest practice is what Dominik
Wujastyk asserts. I.e.  " In transcribing a manuscript it is best practice
to transcribe diplomatically exactly what the MS says".  For the same
the reason Jean-Luc Chevillard gives in order to avoid prematurely
resolving inherent ambiguities.  In this case the users of these
transcribed texts will most likely be specialists with more knowledge than
the typists to resolve any ambiguities in the text.

Thanks,
Harry Spier


On Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 5:24 AM Philipp Maas <philipp.a.maas at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Dominik and Harry,
> Determining “exactly what the MS says” may sometimes be a less
> straightforward task than it may seem. Frequently, transcribing requires
> interpreting. To quote Walter Slaje:
>
> “The ambiguity of some characters of the Śāradā script that are almost,
> or in many cases actually, homographic makes reference to the lexicon,
> grammar, and syntax now and then a necessary condition for the
> interpretation of a character. In any case, an interactive process of
> script deciphering and textual understanding is required.”
> (My rough translation of Slaje, Walter (1993). *Śāradā
> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/602wzzrp7c5uf52/Slaje_Sarada_1993.pdf?dl=0>.
> Deskriptiv-synchrone Schriftkunde zur Bearbeitung kaschmirischer
> Sanskrit-Manuskripte auf der Grundlage von Kuśalas
> Ghaṭakharpara-Gūḍhadīpikā*. Reinbek: Verl. für Orientalistische
> Fachpublikationen, (Indische Schriften 1), p. 2: “Beding durch die
> Mehrdeutigkeit einiger nahezu oder oft auch tatsächlich homographer Zeichen
> der Śārdā-Schrift ist der Rückgriff auf Lexikon, Grammatik oder
> Satzkonstruktion mitunter eine notwendige Voraussetzung für die Deutung der
> Schriftzeichen. Es bedarf daher auf jeden Fall eines wechselwirkenden
> Verfahrens von Schriftentzifferung und Textverständnis.”)
>
> Slaje provides a list of “semi-homograph akṣara-s” in the Śāradā script,
> including *ba *and *va, *on p. 43-45.
>
> I fully agree with Dominik that orthographic peculiarities like the
> gemination of consonants after *r*, the writing of class nasals and
> anusvara, etc., should be exactly reflected in transcriptions. However, any
> manuscript transcript should be based on a benevolent interpretation of
> the Sanskrit text transmitted in the witness, containing, for example,
> *ba* or *va*, when and wherever required by the contexts.
> With best wishes,
>
> Philipp
>
>
>
> __________________________
>
> PD Dr. Philipp A. Maas
> Research Associate
> Department of Indology and Central Asian Studies
> University of Leipzig
> ___________________________
>
> https://spp1448.academia.edu/PhilippMaas
>
>
> Am Mo., 13. März 2023 um 20:42 Uhr schrieb Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info>:
>
>> In transcribing a manuscript it is best practice to transcribe
>> diplomatically exactly what the MS says.
>>
>> A second, separate file may be prepared that contains various
>> normalisations, like ba/va or śa/sa, rma/rmma, etc.
>>
>> To normalise the main transcription file takes away the opportunity to
>> study these phenomena.  And in any case, the majority of these features can
>> be manipulated with regular-expression rules, as in Saktumiva
>> <https://saktumiva.org/wiki/orthography>.  So there's no need to
>> normalise them.
>>
>> Best,
>> Dominik
>>
>>
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>
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