[INDOLOGY] Fwd: CORRECTION: Writing anusvara with avagraha in devanagari (Harry Spier)

[Madhav Deshpande]

From: Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu>
Date: Thu, Jun 6, 2024 at 6:43 PM
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] CORRECTION: Writing anusvara with avagraha in
devanagari (Harry Spier)
To: Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>


Dear Harry,

     I have a significant memory of the absence of Avagraha in a Sanskrit
text. Around 1974, I was reading the text of Śaunakīya-Caturādhyāyikā, a
Prātiśākhya of the Atharvaveda, with a student of mine. This was Whitney's
edition based on a single manuscript available in the 1850s. One sūtra
describes the articulatory effort in the pronunciation of vowels as
"vivr̥tam svarāṇāṃ" Open in the case of vowels. The next sūtra in Whitney's
manuscript read "ekespr̥ṣṭam". Whitney's reading was "eke spr̥ṣṭam." Some
describe it as being "contact." Whitney wondered how some could believe in
this ridiculous view. While reading this text with my student, I suspected
that the original reading of the rule was not "eke spr̥ṣṭam", but
"eke+aspr̥ṣṭam", namely that the effort in the case of vowels according to
some was "non-contact." Evidently, the text was referring to two views:
open/non-contact.
     Later, over the next 20+ years, I collected about 22 manuscripts of
this text, and they proved my suspicion to be correct, as some manuscripts
did indeed use an Avagraha in this sūtra. The introduction of Avagraha must
have been done with the purpose of removing ambiguity in the text. But this
use of Avagraha and this meaning of Avagraha is unknown to old grammars,
Prātiśākhyas and Śikṣās.

Madhav

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]


On Thu, Jun 6, 2024 at 2:45 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Thank you Piotr, very clear. And thank you to Elaine Fisher and Matthew
> Kapstein who replied off list.
> Harry Spier
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 6, 2024 at 4:52 PM Piotr Balcerowicz via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear Harry,
>>
>> All printed editions reproduce the passage is as: *सागरों**ऽशुश्च*, e.g.
>> the Poona edition:
>> [image: image.png]
>>
>> *A**vagr**a**ha* is historically introduced later. *Anusvāra* is already
>> represented in the Aśokan Brāhmī script, which means it is an old concept,
>> and represented thereafter in various scripts, whereas *svagraha* is
>> introduced only much later to Indic scripts. Early manuscripts  frequently
>> do not contain the *avagraha* sign at all. So, in historically earlier
>> period (when *avagraha* was no yet there) we would expect to read
>> *सागरों**शुश्च*, in which the *anusvāra* would obviously be written over
>> the preceding *akṣara*. The insertion of the *avagraha* into this
>> sequence of *akṣara*s (*सागरों**ऽशुश्च*) should therefore not change
>> much and the *anusvāra* should remain in its (historically) original
>> place (where it would have been, before the inventions of *avagraha*).
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Piotr
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> http://balcerowicz.eu/
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
>> To: indology at list.indology.info
>> Cc:
>> Bcc:
>> Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2024 09:16:36 -0400
>> Subject: [INDOLOGY] Writing anusvara with avagraha in devanagari
>> Dear list members,
>> What is the correct way to write anusvara with avagraha.
>> For example in Mahābharata 03,003,024c
>>  varuṇaḥ sāgaro 'ṁśuś ca jīmūto jīvano 'rihā
>> Should it be written  as सागरोऽंशुश्च or सागरोंऽशुश्च
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Harry Spier
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
>> To: indology at list.indology.info
>> Cc:
>> Bcc:
>> Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2024 09:20:25 -0400
>> Subject: [INDOLOGY] CORRECTION: Writing anusvara with avagraha in
>> devanagari
>> Dear list members,
>> I meant to write:
>> What is the correct way to write anusvara with avagraha in devanagari..
>> For example in Mahābharata 03,003,024c   varuṇaḥ sāgaro 'ṁśuś ca jīmūto
>> jīvano 'rihā
>> Should it be written  as सागरोऽंशुश्च or सागरोंऽशुश्
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Harry Spier
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
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