[INDOLOGY] Meaning of middle level dot after words in manuscript

[Harry Spier]

 Dear list members,

It was pointed out to me on the BVP list by the author of the
श्रीमल्ललितालालितः
website:

That just means that the writing of a repeating word/phrase was skipped by
the scribe. In most cases it is already known by the reader or already
written once before by the scribe.
So, if it is nyAsa prakaraNa, then शिख शिर etc. mean शिखायै वौषट् शिरसे
स्वाहा etc. If it was done with the mantra, then it is assumed by the
scribe that the reader/practitioner known the mantra owing to his study of
veda-s. And so on.

Also Charles DiSimone noted:

In older brahmic manuscripts produced throughout Greater Gandhāra these
dots are commonly used similarly to danda. They are referred to as dot like
punctuation (although they are not always used as punctuation!). Maybe
something similar going on here?


Also the correct link to the manuscript is:

https://archive.org/download/AgyanDhvantaDeepikaShriSomnath4966Alm22Shlf4DevanagariTantra_201708/Agyan%20Dhvanta%20Deepika%20-%20Shri%20Somnath_4966_Alm_22_Shlf_4_Devanagari-%20Tantra.pdf


Thanks,
Harry Spier


On Thu, May 18, 2023 at 7:48 PM Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear list members,
> I'm looking at a manuscript of the ajñānadvāntadīpikā by somanātha.  In
> some of the folios some words are followed by a mid-level dot (see attached
> folio 29b with the words followed by the dot circled in blue).  Can someone
> tell me what the mid-level dot means?
>
> This also occurs in folios
>
> 17b, 19b, 20a,21a,21b,22a,22b,25a,26a,27a,27b, 30a,30b,31a,32a,32b,34a,
> 34b,35a,36a,36b,37a,37b
>
> The full manuscript can be downloaded from archive.org, the link is:
> https://archive.org/download/https://archive.org/download/AgyanDhvantaDeepikaShriSomnath4966Alm22Shlf4DevanagariTantra_201708/Agyan%20Dhvanta%20Deepika%20-%20Shri%20Somnath_4966_Alm_22_Shlf_4_Devanagari-%20Tantra.pdf
>
> Thanks,
> Harry Spier
>
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