Indian Epigraphy c10.s3: 3. Omission. Correction and Pagination

Indian Epigraphy c10.s3

Language: English

3. Omission. Correction and Pagination

c10.s3.1

In both manuscripts and inscriptions, a letter omitted by the scribe through oversight was generally written above or below the line near the spot of omission with or without any indication.³ Often letters or groups of them thus omitted were engraved in the margin and, in such cases, generally the number of the line, in which the matter written above or below the record would have to be read, was indicated by mentioning its number counted in the first case from the top and in the latter from the bottom.⁴ Sometimes the place of omission is indicated by a sign.⁵

c10.s3.2

³ See, e. g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 116, note 4; p. 120, note 1; p. 123, note 3.

c10.s3.3

⁴ See, e.g., ibid., p. 122, note 2; p. 125, note 4; p. 126, notes 1, 4-7; p. 127, notes 2-3.

c10.s3.4

⁵ See, e.g., the cases cited in the previous note.

c10.s3.5

In line 31 of the Kalsī inscription (Rock Edict XII) of Aśoka, the passage *ti apaśalahā vā*, wrongly written originally, is struck out by cancellation strokes and the correction *pala-pāsaṃḍa-galahā va* is incised above the line.⁶ On copper plates, such passages are generally rubbed off by chiselling or beaten in by hammering and the correction re-engraved on the erasure.⁷ But a letter or a group of them, when detected to have been wrongly engraved, was sometimes altered to other letters without erasing the former.⁸ Old and invalid copper-plate records coming into the possession of the Government were no doubt melted in order to fashion new plates for fresh use.

c10.s3.6

⁶ Hultzsch, op. cit., p. 42, note 14. For cases of scoring off on the copper plates, see, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXI, p. 117, notes 1 and 3; p. 118, note 2; p. 119, notes 2, 3-4; p. 120, note 2; p. 123, notes 2, 4; p. 125, note 6; p. 126, note 2.

c10.s3.7

⁷ See, e.g., *JAS*, Letters, Vol. XX, 1954, pp. 209 ff.; above, p. 76.

c10.s3.8

⁸ cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXIV, p. 163, note 6.

c10.s3.9

But occasionally the entire writing of an inscription on copper plates was beaten in by hammering and a totally new record was re-engraved on them. This kind of palimsests is often met with.¹ In manuscripts, wrong passages were often covered with turmeric paste and the erasure was either kept blank or the correction was re-written on it.

c10.s3.10

¹ See, e.g., *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXV, Plate facing p. 191; Vol. XXIII, Plate facing p. 106; above, p. 76.

c10.s3.11

In later inscriptions and manuscripts, the spot of omission was indicated often by a small upright or inclined cross, generally called *kāka-pāda* or *haṃsa-pāda*.² Instead of the cross, the *svastika* symbol was also used.³

c10.s3.12

² See, e.g., ibid., Vol. III, p. 52, Plate 2, line 1; p. 276, line 11.; above, p. 6.

c10.s3.13

³ See, e.g., *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. VI, p. 32, Plate 3.

c10.s3.14

In South Indian manuscripts, the cross was used also as an indication of intentional omission which, as well as defective passages in the original quoted in the commentaries, were marked elsewhere in the country by dots or short strokes above or beneath the line.⁴ The symbol of an ear-ring (*kuṇḍala*) or a *svastika* was sometimes used to mark unintelligible passages.⁵ A globular mark was sometimes engraved below a letter to indicate that it was wrongly engraved and should not be taken into account.⁶ A similar practice is referred to in Śrīharṣa’s *Naiṣadhīya*⁷ which speaks of a circle being drawn round a letter as a mark of cancellation.

c10.s3.15

⁴ See Bühler, op. cit., p. 91.

c10.s3.16

⁵ Loc. cit.; cf. Bühler’s *Kashmir Report*, p. 71; Kielhorn, *Mahābhāṣya*, Vol. II, p. 10, note.

c10.s3.17

⁶ See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVIII, p. 262 and Plate, text line 12 (cf. the mark below *pa* at the end of the line).

c10.s3.18

⁷ See I, 14.; cf. *Journ. Or. Inst.*, Vol. III, pp. 267-68.

c10.s3.19

The leaves of a manuscript, not their pages, were given consecutive numbers. The number of a leaf was usually put on its reverse except in the southern areas where it was generally written on the obverse of the leaf.⁸ In royal charters engraved on more than two copper plates, the numbering of the plates is sometimes noticed. Such multiplate royal records were more popular in the central and southern regions of India and only in some cases the plates are numbered. Sometimes they bear the numbers on the obverse as in the case with the southern manuscripts;¹ but the first plate, with its obverse often blank, bears the number on the reverse.² In rare cases, the obverse and reverse of a plate in multiplate records are both numbered as in the case of a modern book.³

Linked texts (1)

Major Rock Edict XII — Prakrit