Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c7.s5.t2.10

c7.s5.t2.10

Corrections and omissions are indicated by various means. Sometimes, as in Aśokan rock edict XII at Kālsī, l. 31 (CII 1, 42), an incorrectly written passage was simply crossed out and the correct reading entered above the line. In copper plates, however, the standard practice was to beat the incorrect passage flat and rewrite it, or simply to write over it without erasure (see, e.g., Appendix, no. 10, l. 36). Omitted letters or words could be inserted by simply writing them into, above, or below the appropriate place in the line. Longer omissions would typically be added in the margins; their intended location was usually indicated by placing the beginning of the added passage in the upper or lower margin at the appropriate vertical position, and denoting the line where it belonged by a number indicating the number of lines from the top or bottom. Numerous examples of corrections of these types are pointed out in the editor’s notes to the Asankhali plates of Narasiṁha II, EI 31, 109–28. Alternatively, the placement of a marginal addition could be indicated in the text by the cross-shaped mark known as *kākapāda* or *haṁsapāda* (see, e.g., EI 3, 51 n. 9).