Dear Patrick,

I too was wondering about this a while back, and received the following two references from Professor Oskar von Hinüber, which I pass on to the list because they may be of more general interest:

J. F. Blumhardt: Catalogue of the Gujarati and Rajasthani Manuscripts in the India Office Library. London1954, S.6 on the name devanagari. (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001173373)

Walter H. Maurer: On the name devanāgarī , JAOS 96.1976, S. 101-104 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/599893) 


From these it appears that the earliest attestation of the name is in 1731, when La Croze mentioned "Devanagari" as an alternative to "Nagari" in a letter to Theophilus Bayer, where he describes it as "the character used by Bramans," in contrast to Balabande (Balabodha), "the character used by the Marathas." (This is presumably printed in La Croze's correspondence, Thesaurus Epistolicus Lacrozianus, but I haven't tracked it down there. Blumhardt has a very brief reference on p. 6.) This is older than the reference Maurer gives, viz. to Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws in 1776. La Croze must have based his information on books or manuscripts in Berlin.

I have not so far seen any explanation of the name, or any sources (Indian or European) prior to 1731 where it is used.

Andrew


On Tue, Mar 30, 2021 at 12:45 AM patrick mccartney <psdmccartney@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Friends,

Might anyone be able to pinpoint the general/specific period/text when the nāgarī lipi is divinised and qualified as devanāgarī?

The dates of 1st to 4th c. CE for its development and standard usage by the 7th c., with the modern lipi emerging in the 10th c. are reasonably clear. Though, I find it difficult to pinpoint more accurately when the lipi becomes a deva.

Are there any discussions of this in primary texts? Some sort of orthographic argument? If you catch my sense.

Thank you.


All the best,

パトリック　マッカートニー
Patrick McCartney, PhD
Research Affiliate - Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD), Kyoto
Research Associate - Nanzan University Anthropological Institute, Nagoya, Japan
Visiting Fellow - South and South-east Asian Studies Department, Australian National University
Member - South Asia Research Institute (SARI), Australian National University

Skype / Zoom - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp + Line:  +61410644259
Twitter - @psdmccartney @yogascapesinjap

bodhapūrvam calema ;-)

 











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