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Sanskrit for ages has been written in the local lipi. For example,

in Andhra or Karnataka, in Telugu-Kannada script.

In Tamil Nadu, texts were printed in the Grantha script.

In inscriptions as well. Saiva aagamas, originally written

in Grantha on palm leaf and paper, have been printed in Nagari

in recent years. Prof. Sushil Srivastava's article talks about Nagari

and Government patronage

 

With the advancement in computer publishing, and switch to

Unicode fonts, it should be easier to convert from one script

to another. Are there any fonts that Indologists have produced for

Grantha characters?

 

The first western grammar about Sanskrit is printed in the Grantha script:

Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo, Dissertation on the Sanskrit language.

A reprint of the original Latin text of 1790, together with an

introductory article, a complete English translation, and an

index of sources by Ludo Rocher. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory

and History of Linguistic Science. Series III - Studies in the

History of Linguistics. Volume 12. (Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 1977)

 

Grantha character sanksrit capability for representing Vedic accents:

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9806&L=indology&P=R15183

 

Venugopalan, K. A primer in Grantha characters St. Peter, Minn: James H. Nye

1983

is available on the net:

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/dig_toc.html?BOOKID=PK419.V468_1983

A.C. Burnell, G. Buhler's books contain lot of info on Grantha letters.

 

Sankaracharya's Brahmasutrabhashyam in Grantha:

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/digpager.html?BOOKID=PK419.V468_1983&object=19

 

Bhagavadgita in Grantha:

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/digpager.html?BOOKID=PK419.V468_1983&object=18

 

Eventually, Sanskrit texts could be on the web or in paper

with at least three scripts - a) roman with diacriticals, b) grantha and c)

nagari.

Will Unicode in the future make this easier?

 

N. Ganesan

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Can you give reference to Sushil Srivastava's article about

Nagari and Government patronage? This is interesting. In

Maharashtra, Nagari was used for Sanskrit and Modi was used

for Marathi. However, under British patronage of Marathi textbook

production, Nagari slowly replaced Modi for Marathi, to the extent

that modern Marathi folks can no longer read documents in

Modi. Best,

 

Madhav Deshpande

 

INDOLOGY, "naga_ganesan" <naga_ganesan@h...>

wrote:

>

> Sanskrit for ages has been written in the local lipi. For

example,

> in Andhra or Karnataka, in Telugu-Kannada script.

> In Tamil Nadu, texts were printed in the Grantha script.

> In inscriptions as well. Saiva aagamas, originally written

> in Grantha on palm leaf and paper, have been printed in

Nagari

> in recent years. Prof. Sushil Srivastava's article talks about

Nagari

> and Government patronage

>

> With the advancement in computer publishing, and switch to

> Unicode fonts, it should be easier to convert from one script

> to another. Are there any fonts that Indologists have produced

for

> Grantha characters?

>

> The first western grammar about Sanskrit is printed in the

Grantha script:

> Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo, Dissertation on the Sanskrit

language.

> A reprint of the original Latin text of 1790, together with an

> introductory article, a complete English translation, and an

> index of sources by Ludo Rocher. Amsterdam Studies in the

Theory

> and History of Linguistic Science. Series III - Studies in the

> History of Linguistics. Volume 12. (Amsterdam: John

Benjamins B.V., 1977)

>

> Grantha character sanksrit capability for representing Vedic

accents:

>

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9806&L=indology&P=R1

5183

>

> Venugopalan, K. A primer in Grantha characters St. Peter,

Minn: James H. Nye 1983

> is available on the net:

>

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/dig_toc.html?BOOKID=PK419

..V468_1983

> A.C. Burnell, G. Buhler's books contain lot of info on Grantha

letters.

>

> Sankaracharya's Brahmasutrabhashyam in Grantha:

>

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/digpager.html?BOOKID=PK41

9.V468_1983&object=19

>

> Bhagavadgita in Grantha:

>

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/digpager.html?BOOKID=PK41

9.V468_1983&object=18

>

> Eventually, Sanskrit texts could be on the web or in paper

> with at least three scripts - a) roman with diacriticals, b)

grantha and c) nagari.

> Will Unicode in the future make this easier?

>

> N. Ganesan

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>Can you give reference to Sushil Srivastava's article about

>Nagari and Government patronage? This is interesting. In

>Maharashtra, Nagari was used for Sanskrit and Modi was used

>for Marathi. However, under British patronage of Marathi textbook

>production, Nagari slowly replaced Modi for Marathi, to the extent

>that modern Marathi folks can no longer read documents in

>Modi.

 

>Best,

>Madhav Deshpande

 

 

Gave the link to Sushil's review article in pdf format earlier:

INDOLOGY/message/2790

 

Srivastava, Sushil "Review Article: Christopher King,

One Language, Two Scripts," Social Scientist 23, no. 263-65 (1995),

p. 108-116.

 

In pdf format

http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/10/28KingLanguage.pdf

 

Or, in GIF format (use the -> arrow to go to

successive pages),

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/socialscientist/pager.html?objectid=HN681.S597_26\

3-65_112.gif

 

Srivastava claims that the British colonialists and Hindu

nationalists joined to enforce nagari on many peoples of India.

What is the interest from the colonial west in Nagari?

Is it a 19th cent. design to remove eventually the Muslim control over India?

 

Dr. Yashwant Mallya mentioned about Prof. Sushil Srivastava's

article in the Economic and Political Weekly, Oct. 28, 2000

This may be the Sushil article:

http://www.dalitstan.org/journal/hindia/hin000/hind0020.html

 

Rajeev Srinivasan, a native Malayalam speaker, looks

at the language and script issue. Rajeev

says Sanskrit is better national language than the Urdu/Hindi.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/sep/13rajeev.htm

http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/sep/22rajeev.htm

http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/oct/05rajeev.htm

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

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>Can you give reference to Sushil Srivastava's article about

>Nagari and Government patronage? This is interesting. In

>Maharashtra, Nagari was used for Sanskrit and Modi was used

>for Marathi. However, under British patronage of Marathi textbook

>production, Nagari slowly replaced Modi for Marathi, to the extent

>that modern Marathi folks can no longer read documents in

>Modi. Best, Madhav Deshpande

 

Urdu scholars mention the fate of Kaithi script. It resembles that of

the Marathi Modi script. Nagari obtained the British & GoI

support, but not Kaithi, Modi, ... became endangered scripts.

 

Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. Early Urdu Literary Culture and

History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001

The first chapter can be read from the web:

http://www.columbia.edu/~fp7/srf/early_urdu_ch1.pdf

 

p. 27

"For the vicissitudes of Kaithi in the Nineteenth century, see King,

One Language, Two Scripts. Kaithii is now practically unknown,

though instances of individual, isolated businessmen using it

for writing their accounts can be found till about the first

half of this century. It was fairly widespread until late into

the nineteenth century in parts of modern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,

and modern Madhya Pradesh. The British policy of promoting

the Nagari script apparently killed off the Kaithi."

 

See p. 37 (the concluding page of ch. I) telling about

the colonial schemes.

 

Srivastava, Sushil "Review Article: Christopher King,

One Language, Two Scripts,"

The Annual of Urdu studies, p. 217-228. In pdf format

http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/10/28KingLanguage.pdf

 

Nagari's growth and the demise of Kaithi and Persian scripts,

pl. read p. 224-226.

 

Hopefully, computers will give the reader a choice of scripts -

roman, nagari, grantha, ...

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

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