Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s1.t2: 5.1.2 Presentation of the edited text
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s1.t2
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5.1.2 Presentation of the edited text
c10.s1.t2.1
Indic inscriptions are normally published with a transcribed or transliterated text, either in Roman characters or in one of the modern Indian scripts. Of the latter, Devanāgarī is the standard (except for publications in various regional languages) for Sanskrit and Sanskritic inscriptions, while Dravidian inscriptions are usually published in Roman transliteration or in the modern form of the script used for the language of the inscription (or sometimes in both, as in *Epigraphia Carnatica*).
c10.s1.t2.2
The system of Roman transliteration generally used for archaeological and epigraphic publications in India⁵ (e.g., in *Epigraphia Indica* and *Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum*) is essentially the Indian variety (with *ṛi* and *ṛī* instead of *ṛ* and *ṝ*, *ch* and *chh* for *c* and *ch*, and *sh* for *ṣ*) of the standard modern system for Sanskrit and related languages. Special features of this epigraphic transliteration system are that the Sanskrit vowels *e* and *o* are normally noted as long (*ē*, *ō*),⁶ and that special symbols for the *jihvāmūlīya* and *upadhmānīya* varieties of *visarga* (*ẖ*, *ḫ*) are used when represented as such in Sanskrit inscriptions.⁷
c10.s1.t2.3
⁵ In this book, as in epigraphic studies published in the West generally, the standard modern European transliteration system for general Indology has been followed, rather than the epigraphically modified Indian system.
c10.s1.t2.4
⁶ This is done because the system is intended to serve not only for Indo-Aryan but also for Dravidian inscriptions, in which *e* and *o* are sometimes graphically distinguished for length. The distinction is, however, superfluous for Sanskritic inscriptions; thus, e.g., Sircar disregards it in SI (I.xvi).
c10.s1.t2.5
Punctuation marks, insofar as they are present in the original inscription scription must give careful thought to the degree of correction and standardization to be imposed on an宝石 inscriptional text, and when in doubt should leave the text as it stands.