[INDOLOGY] A strange dot in the manuscript

[Elliot Stern]

In Nāgarī manuscripts, copyists mark off the curved upper part of the incorrect vowel with two marks and add a short mark at the bottom of the vertical stroke. See the third line of the attached image. My guess is that the correction practice in Newari manuscripts is similar. The dot may be an accidental mark (a drop of ink).

You can review images of three Newari script manuscripts at the OCHS Manuscript Database Project (https://ochs-database.netlify.app/) to look for corrections of I to ī or ī to i.




Best wishes,

Elliot

> On May 16, 2026, at 9:50 AM, Дмитрий Комиссаров via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Dear list members,
> Could you please help me interpret a sign in a manuscript written in the Newari script. 
> The scribe made a mistake and for the akṣara "ccha" wrote two vowel diacritics — i and ī. Under the ī diacritic, he placed some kind of dot (see the picture; sorry for the poor image quality). Could this dot mean that of the two diacritics, the one under which the dot is placed should be considered the correct one? 
> I would be grateful for any hints you can give me.
> Best regards,
> Dmitrii Komissarov
> 
> <dot.jpg>
> 
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Elliot M. Stern
552 South 48th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19143-2029
emstern1948 at gmail.com
267-240-8418



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