Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.s5: § 5. Corrections, etc.
Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.s5
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§ 5. Corrections, etc.
c7.s5.1
Erasures are generally made by a line above or below the erroneous letter or word, and occasionally (in çāsanas on metal plates) the erroneous letter or word is beaten out.
c7.s5.2
Omissions are marked by a small cross (kākapāda or haṁsapāda) over the place, and the letter or words that are wanting are then written underneath the line³), or in the margin. If there are several such corrections on the same leaf, it is often difficult to make out the place to which each belongs, and this is a frequent cause of error in the transcripts of MSS. Copyists in India will always insert any marginal note they may see, in the text⁴), but are quite indifferent where they insert it.
c7.s5.3
³ There is an example in the Mercara plates of this.
c7.s5.4
⁴ See Bühler’s “Āpastamba-Dharmasūtra”, i., p. 7.
c7.s5.5
Where a word or letter is to be transferred this is done by writing numbers above corresponding to the required order.
c7.s5.6
In S. Indian MSS. of commentaries on texts, the words of the original are very seldom given in full, but the first two or three syllables are quoted, a cross is then put, and then the last word or syllable of the sentence which is to be explained is then given. Thus: “athāto darça+vyākhyāsyāmaḥ”.
c7.s5.7
The use of the bindu (o) in S. Indian Prakrit MSS. is very peculiar; it is put before a consonant to show that it is doubled (*e. g.* sa°go=saggo), and this is done even if the consonant it precedes is aspirated (*e. g.* cho°thi=choththi for chotthi)⁵). This practice may be a survival of a similar system used in the Cave inscriptions in Prakrit, as Profr. Kern has shown. The sign ° is also used to express *jj* or *yy*; *e. g.* a°o=ajjo or ayyo⁶).
c7.s5.8
⁵ See Pischel, ‘Urvaçī’ in “Monatsber. d. Berliner Acad.” 1875, p. 616.
c7.s5.9
⁶ Do: pp. 614-5. Also E. Müller, “Beiträge zur Grammatik des Jainaprākrit”, p. 12.
c7.s5.10
In a Tamiḻ grant (Pallava) of the eleventh century some words which are several times repeated are given in an abbreviated form, *e. g.* ‘go:’ for ‘gotra’. It is, perhaps, remarkable that abbrevations should occur so seldom, for the ‘bījāxara’ system has long been held in esteem in India.