Thank you for taking an interest in this, Madhav. Yes, there are several instances of both characters. Here is another one of द्य :



And here is one of घ :



It is, of course, entirely possible that someone at some point misread prāghuṇika as prādyuṇika (though it would have to have been someone ignorant of the former word, like myself) and that the mistake was then copied. The problem is, as I said before, that 'guest' doesn't really fit the context anyway.

Because the Sanskrit text is a very condensed rendering of the Arabic original, it is possible that the mystery word should not mean 'frequent' after all, but rather the next thing discussed, which would be someone dear or connected to the querent. But I can't see prāghuṇika fitting that sense either, at least not from its etymology. Some printed editions that quote this verse give the word in question as prāyaṇika, but I'm not sure that helps (although I see that prāya- can have the sense 'common, ordinary'), and is does look suspiciously like a lectio simplicior, or at least like a corruption.

Best wishes,
Martin


Den 2022-05-20 kl. 00:54, skrev Madhav Deshpande:
Does the scribe use घ and द्य in different places, so you can compare?

Madhav