Thank you Michael for your usual clarity.
1. Does the brownish red over a word in a manuscript always mean a deletion? For example in this manuscript on page 1 there is brownish-red ink blob covering the word "sarva" but deleting this would make the meter incorrect. Note: page 2 has what looks like an obvious deletion with a strikethrough instead of a blob of ink. (removing this text preserves the meter).
2. Michael wrote: [this manuscript\] has many North Indian peculiarities,
This manuscript and others I've examined from this collection from different scribes have verse numbers at the end of verses but no dandas. marking either 1/2 verse or the end verse. This is even the case in a manuscript that starts with ||śrigaṇeśāyanamaḥ || I.e. a phrase in double dandas. Is this (numbers only but no dandas marking verses) a north Indian peculiarity? Is it common?