Dear Harry Spier,

I'm not sure when ba became a dedicated akṣara within the Devanāgarī script, but what you describe has been the norm for Brahmic script manuscript transmissions over history.

All my best,

Charles

Dr. Charles DiSimone

Department of Languages and Cultures

Ghent University

On Sat, Feb 25, 2023 at 2:57 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear list members,

I'm looking at a manuscript from the Ragunath Temple Sanskrit Manuscript Library, Jammu, j&K. The text is  ajñānadvāntadīpikā by somanātha

The link to the pdf on archive.org is:

https://archive.org/download/AgyanDhvantaDeepikaShriSomnath4966Alm22Shlf4DevanagariTantra/Agyan%20Dhvanta%20Deepika%20-%20Shri%20Somnath_4966_Alm_22_Shlf_4_Devanagari-%20Tantra.pdf

Looking at the first few lines it looks to me like the scribe is using the devanagari letter  व for both व and ब.  Is that common practice in devanagari manuscripts from kashmir?

Thanks,

Harry Spier

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