[INDOLOGY] Upadhmānīya and Jihvāmūlīya

[Harry Spier]

Dear everyone,

*1) *    Thomas Burke wrote on the list in April 2000.  Apparently list
members (and the list) were involved in developing the unicode vedic
extensions block.

Although upadhmaaniiya and jiihvaamuuliiya both have independent signs
(termed gajakumbhaak*rti and vajraak*ti respectively [see Abhyankar's

Dictionary of Sanskrit grammar, s.v., for details]), both these signs are
commonly replaced by yet a third sign, the ardhavisarga, in grammatical texts
printed in Nagari. If we are properly to quote these texts, without editorial
intervention, we need the ardhavisarga in addition to the signs for
upadhmaaniiya and jiihvaamuuliiya.  Three characters, in all, are thus
required.

Many members of this group will have first encountered  upadhmaaniiya and
jiihvaamuuliiya in the Tantraakhyaayikaa selection in Stenzler's
Elementarbuch der Sanskrit-sprache, which represents upadhmaaniiya by
ardhavisarga and jiihvaamuuliiya by the vajrak*rti sign.

Would it be possible for  someone send me a photograph of the
Tantrākhyāyikā selection in
Stenzler's Elementarbuch der Sanskrit-sprache .

*2) *There have been discussions over the years on the list about jihvamUlIya ,
upadhmAnIya and ardhavisarga.

1. Madhav Deshpande and others Dec. 2019

2. Anthony P. Stone and others Nov. 1996 (He was a major player  in developing
the ISO standard for the transliteration of sanskrit).

Harry Spier




On Sat, Nov 8, 2025 at 9:37 AM Malgorzata Wielinska-Soltwedel via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Andrew,
>
> Sorry for the self-promotion, but you might find my article ("Anspielungen
> auf Schriftzeichen in den traditionellen Sanskrit-Grammatiken",
> Saddharmāmṛtam. Festschrift für Jens-Uwe Hartmann zum 65. Geburtstag, 2018,
> pp. 527-540) useful in this context (even though it's in German).
>
> And I would definitely argue in favour of retaining such characters in the
> editions.
>
> Best,
> Malgorzata
>
> --
> Małgorzata Wielińska-Soltwedel, PhD (she/her)
> Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
> Editor-in-chief
> Head of the Department of Modern Cultures of Asia and Africa
> Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures Polish Academy of Sciences
> Staszic Palace
> ul. Nowy Świat 72
> 00-330 Warsaw, Poland
> http://www.iksiopan.pl
>
> *Gesendet: *Freitag, 7. November 2025 um 20:39
> *Von: *"Andrew Ollett via INDOLOGY" <indology at list.indology.info>
> *An: *Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Betreff: *[INDOLOGY] Upadhmānīya and Jihvāmūlīya
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am working with a manuscript that uses upadhmānīya and jihvāmūlīya for
> visarga before p/ph and k/kh respectively:
>
> [image: Screenshot From 2025-11-07 13-30-45.png]
> [image: Screenshot From 2025-11-07 13-27-24.png]
>
> The script is Śāradā, but I was wondering (a) whether these letters are
> used in printed Devanagari texts at all recently and what their forms are,
> and (b) whether anyone can suggest a Devanagari font that implements them
> correctly. I am wondering whether it might be worthwhile to retain these
> signs in a (Devanagari) edition of the text, or whether I should just
> regularize them to visarga. (The codepoints are in the Vedic Extensions
> Unicode block, although unlike the codepoint for visarga, they are not
> combining characters.)
>
> Andrew
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