[INDOLOGY] Anusvara in IAST transliteration

[Dániel Balogh]

Dear Harry,

IAST is not an absolute standard in the way ISO-15919 is; it's more like a
set of conventions, without a definitive document and hence malleable at
the edges. There is, for example, no definite provision in IAST for the
upadhmānīya and jihvāmūlīya (the transliterations listed on the Wikipedia
page for IAST are just one of the options in use), nor for the Vedic
retroflex l, much less for Dravidian retroflexes and alveolars. The same
Wikipedia page gives ḻ for the retroflex l, which I have never seen before
and which clashes with the convention of using ḻ for the sound in e.g.
Tamiḻ.
I personally have never heard of a flavour of IAST that uses an overdot for
the anusvāra and agree with you that the IAST anusvāra is with an underdot.
The first of two random Google hits agree:
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/sanskrit.htm and
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/education/translation/guide_to_sanskrit_transliteration_and_pronunciation.pdf
I dare say that as far as IAST can be considered a standard, the "correct"
IAST anusvāra is ṃ, while ṁ is an informal alternative. So, put in so many
words, yes, Wikipedia is wrong.
See also the stub on the discussion page for the IAST article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration#Anusvara

All the best,
Daniel

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 at 02:10, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear list members,
>
> I had always thought that anusvara in IAST was m with underdot (thats what
> GRETIL, SARIT and U ot Texas Etexts have and what I've always used) but
> just now looking at the wikipedia articles: Devanagari Transliteration
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari_transliteration
> and  IAST
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration
> Both these articles have IAST anusvara as m overdot. Are these wikipedia
> articles wrong or have we all (GRETIL,SARIT, Uof Texas, me) not been using
> correct IAST transliteration?
>
> Thanks,
> Harry Spier
>
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