[INDOLOGY] Question about Nepalese manuscripts

[Westin Harris]

Dear Indologists,

It's always a treat to see threads about Nepal on Indology :). Thanks
*Charles*, *Matthew*, and *Sam* for your contributions.

*Sam*: It's fascinating to hear your explanation of Bhujimol in reference
to the "squiggle" E on a consonant. I was told that "bhujimol/bhujimogal"
refers to the circular Odia-like "hooked" head used on
most Bhujimol consonants instead of the T-shaped flat head seen in
Pracalit, Nagari, Bangla, Gurmukhi, Tibetan, etc. Likewise, some catalogues
and secondary sources will refer to Bhujimol script as "Kuṭila" or
"Kuṭila-Newa(ri)." I was not aware that there were different explanations
for the meaning of "Bhujimol" -- super interesting!

*Harry*: In my experience, many Newa MSS are written without word spaces or
breaks. However, I've worked with a not-so-insignificant number of Newa MSS
(especially later ones) that do have dots or slight spaces between words.
And just to second what has already been said, in my experience Nepālākṣara
most commonly refers to Bhujimol or Pracalit -- though theoretically it
could refer to any number of Nepalese scripts as Sam has adequately
explained.


*Sincerely,*

*Westin Harris*
Ph.D. Candidate
Study of Religion
University of California, Davis
https://religionsgrad.ucdavis.edu/people/westin-harris
<https://religions.ucdavis.edu/people/westin-harris>

2021 Dissertation Fellow,
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies

Sarva Mangalam.


On Sat, Dec 7, 2024 at 3:28 PM Samuel Grimes via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> This is a fair point, and includes manuscripts used in worship (e.g,
> prajnaparamita mss written with gold letters). I should qualify my earlier
> statement to say that ranjana is an uncommon script, reserved for more
> specialized and elevated manuscripts, especially those regularly used in
> ritual worship (often of the manuscript itself).
> Sam
>
> On Sat, Dec 7, 2024 at 6:20 PM Matthew Kapstein <mattkapstein at proton.me>
> wrote:
>
>> Actually, besides palm leaf, some of the ones I’ve seen are very ornate,
>> written in silver or gold on black-painted paper similar to Tibetan mthing
>> shog.
>>
>> Matthew
>>
>> Sent from Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> for iOS
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 8, 2024 at 00:12, Charles DiSimone <
>> disimone at alumni.stanford.edu
>> <On+Sun,+Dec+8,+2024+at+00:12,+Charles+DiSimone+%3C%3Ca+href=>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Matthew writes:
>>
>> “Unless I am somehow missing his point, this seems to me not to be
>> correct. I have seen complete manuscripts of the PañcarakSa and of the
>> ASTasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā written in Rañjana, for example.”
>>
>> I have also seen manuscripts of the very same works noted above in
>> Rañjana. On palm leaf if I remember correctly.
>>
>> All my best,
>> Charles
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> > On Dec 8, 2024, at 12:09 AM, Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>> >
>> > Unless I am somehow missing his point, this seems to me not to be
>> correct. I have seen complete manuscripts of the PañcarakSa and of the
>> ASTasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā written in Rañjana, for example.
>>
>>
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