[INDOLOGY] ळ in south Indian grantha sanskrit manuscripts
Charles Li
cchli at cantab.net
Fri Mar 24 13:45:07 UTC 2023
Hi everyone,
Since we're on the topic of Kannada and the retroflex ḷ, I was wondering
if anyone has seen this weird Devanagari sign for "ḷa". I'm attaching
two photos of the same passage from a Kannada commentary on the
Amarakoṣa, the first one in Devanagari script (British Library IO SAN
1758), and the second in Tigalari (IFP RE33635). The passage reads:
guṇāḥ | guṇagaḷū |
As seen in RE33635, the last character is "ḷū". But Devanagari scribe
consistently uses a funny sign, a kind of ल with an extra hook, to
transcribe this. Has anyone seen this anywhere else?
Best,
Charles
On 2023-03-24 14:18, Andrew Ollett via INDOLOGY wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> In Kannada, too, Sanskrit words are often written with a retroflex ḷ
> (ಳ = ळ) where we might have expected l (ಲ = ल). The retroflex ḷ in
> Sanskrit words is called by the name kṣaḷa (ಕ್ಷಳ) in Kēśava's
> Śabdamaṇidarpaṇam (1260 CE). Kēśava (or Kēśirāja, as he is also known)
> distinguishes this sound from the retroflex ḷ found in Kannada words,
> called kuḷa (ಕುಳ), which is however written with exactly the same
> letter (ಳ). Kēśava further notes that the kṣaḷa and kuḷa (ಳ = ळ) can
> serve as equivalents for the sake of prāsa (second-letter
> alliteration), whereas the dental l (ಲ = ल) cannot alternate with
> either of them.
>
> I don't know precisely (a) why Kēśirāja felt it necessary to
> distinguish between the Sanskrit and Kannada retroflex ḷ; and (b) why
> the retroflex ḷ (kṣaḷa) occurs optionally in some Sanskrit words, in
> some positions, and not in others. Kittel in his /Grammar of the
> Kannada Language /pp. 14–15
> <https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.23505/page/13/mode/2up>, §30,
> says: “It is often used by Kannaḍa people as a substitute for the
> Saṁskṛita ಲ (= ल), the sound of which in the Saṁskṛita language
> apparently bears a dubious character for them, one that is neither
> their ಲ (= ल) nor their ಳ (= ळ); this ಳ (= ळ) is Kêšava’s kṣaḷa.” I
> interpret this to mean: whereas Kannada clearly distinguishes a dental
> and retroflex lateral, Sanskrit does not, and the Sanskrit lateral is
> pronounced somewhere between a dental and retroflex position (kind of
> like the "dental" stops in most kinds of American English), with some
> phonotactically-conditioned variation within this range. The exact
> conditions of this variation remain a little obscure, but Kēśava does
> after all call the consonant kṣaḷa, which suggests that the
> retroflexion is found (among other places) in those same contexts
> where dental n is retroflexed to ṇ. Christophe's observation that
> retroflex ḷ is not used word-initially accords with my impression of
> Kannada usage.
>
> Andrew
>
> On Fri, Mar 24, 2023 at 5:08 AM Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY
> <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> I was in course of stating more or less the same as Anna Aurelia
> about the Malayalam script manuscripts, observing the regularity
> of the use of the retroflex for peculiar words, which, I would
> add, usually preserve this peculiarity in their
> borrowing/inclusion within Malayalam language. The retroflex is
> systematically replaced by -l- in the Devanagari manuscripts which
> are transcripts of Malayalam script mss., with the problem that
> this retroflex can in fact also sometime be used for -ḍ- (see
> below /jaḷa/ for /jaḍa/ etc.).
> Contrasting examples are /viḷambita/ (cf. /viḷambase/ in
> Esposito's post) with a "forced" intervocalic -l- > -ḷ- after a
> prefixe (/lamb- /alone being written with l-),
> versus///vilo//ḷita/ keeping the initial -l- of the theme after
> the prefixe. A more complete listing of the forms of the concerned
> words (from the apparatus in crit. ed. mentioning them) should be
> made for drawing linguistic conclusions. The references of Philipp
> Maas are useful in this respect.
>
> A few samples from a text in course of edition
>
> vilolita : viloḷita
> kuntala : kuntaḷa
> lalita : laḷita
> pulinā : puḷinā
> milatpulakakuḍmalaṃ : miḷatpuḷakakuḍmaḷaṃ
> valakṣagu : vaḷakṣagu
> kalakala : kaḷakaḷa
> alinda : aḷinda
> gala : gaḷa
> antarāla : antarāḷa
> pacelima : paceḷima
> bahala : bahaḷa
> gadula : gaduḷa
> nalina : naḷina
> bakula : bakuḷa
>
> vilambita : viḷambita
>
> jaḍa : jaḷa
>
> From a purāṇa text:
>
> /pātāla /:///pātāḷa/
> /śālin- /: /ṣāḷin//-/
> /tolikā /: /toḷikā/
> /argala-/: /arggaḷa-/
> /vyāla/- : /vyāḷa/-
> /bala- / : /vaḷa-/
> /karāla- /:///karāḷa-/
> /pralaya- /: /praḷaya-/
> /dhūli/- : /dhūḷi/-
> /alakā- : //aḷakā-/
>
> /-viluḍī/- : -/viluḷī/-
> -/jaḍī/- : -/jaḷī/-
> /-vrīḍam /: /-vrīḷam/
> /kṣveḍita-/ : /kṣveḷita-/
> /thuḍa- /:///thuḷa/-
> /huḍa- / : / huḷa-/
>
>> Le 24 mars 2023 à 09:29, Anna Aurelia Esposito
>> <anna.esposito at uni-wuerzburg.de> a écrit :
>>
>> Dear Harry Spier,
>> I found the same in drama manuscripts written in Malayāḷam
>> script. In particular Sanskrit words intervocalic l is replaced
>> by ḷ. This usage persevers not only in all manuscripts, but also
>> in the editions printed in Malayāḷam script (see e.g. the
>> edition of the “Trivandrum Plays” ascribed to Bhasa of Bhāskaran,
>> 1987).
>>
>> In Cārudatta ascribed to Bhāsa we find for example ḷ in I.2a
>> dehaḷīnām, I.13b bahaḷa-, I.13b -kāḷā-, I.26.38 viḷambase, III.8b
>> karāḷo, III.10b -kākaḷīṣu, III.12d nīḷa-, in Dūtavākya -kaḷaṅka-
>> 35.1, -praḷaya- 47c and *49c, -laḷitā- *47a.
>>
>> So far, no one has been able to explain to me why the l has been
>> changed to ḷ in these words, and consistently in every manuscript
>> (and also in the printed edition). A possible explanation would
>> be, as you suggest, that one scribe read the text and the other
>> wrote it; but in some cases it is evident from the errors in the
>> manuscripts that the text was copied and not written down by
>> hearing. I am curious if someone from the list can give us an
>> explanation.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Anna Esposito
>>
>>
>> Zitat von Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>:
>>
>>> Dear list members,
>>> I'm looking at the devanagari transcription of a south indian
>>> grantha
>>> manuscript. most consonent l's are the classical sanskrit l
>>> i.e. ल but
>>> some words have the letter, ळ .
>>> Some examples are:
>>> प्रक्षाळ्य
>>>
>>> नाळिकेरोद्भवंपादौप्रक्षाळ्याचम्यमुकुळीकृतियपिण्गळायवामांघ्र्यब्जदळासह्रिताम्अण्गुळ्यग्रेणशुद्धविद्यातत्वव्याप्तसर्वमणळोपेतं
>>>
>>> I'm pretty sure this isn't from typist misprints because प्रक्षाळ्य
>>> occcurs many times always spelled with ळ
>>>
>>> Any explanations would be appreciated. My understanding is that
>>> sometimes
>>> manuscripts were created by one scribe speaking the text and
>>> another scribe
>>> writing what he hears. Is that a possible explanation for the
>>> occurance of
>>> this letter ळ . I.e. local pronounciation creeping in.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Harry Spier
>>
>>
>>
>> **********
>> PD Dr. Anna Aurelia Esposito
>> **********
>> Universität Würzburg
>> Lehrstuhl für Indologie
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>> 97074 Würzburg
>> Germany
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> <https://uclouvain.be/en/directories/christophe.vielle>
> Louvain-la-Neuve
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