Sam Grimes writes: “Rañjanā is a strictly calligraphic script, and has never been used to record texts in handwritten manuscripts.”
Unless I am somehow missing his point, this seems to me not to be correct. I have seen complete manuscripts of the PañcarakSa and of the ASTasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā written in Rañjana, for example. Matthew Kapstein EPHE, Paris Sent from [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) for iOS On Sat, Dec 7, 2024 at 23:59, Samuel Grimes via INDOLOGY <[[email protected]](mailto:On Sat, Dec 7, 2024 at 23:59, Samuel Grimes via INDOLOGY <<a href=)> wrote: > Harry, > To reiterate Charles' reply: there are a variety of nepālākṣara types. > Pracalit is most commonly used in the modern period, and nearly all paper > manuscripts were written in Pracalit. This is a simple, unadorned script, > that strongly resembles modern devanāragarī. > > From roughly 1250 to the early modern period (~1700) Bhujimol is used. Its > telltale sign is that the vowel "e" following a consonant is marked with a > squiggle or flourish that resembles a winged creature (i.e. bhujimol=fly > wings). Bhujimol is most commonly on palm leaf manuscripts. A version of > Bhujimol may also be found on many bilingual manuscripts produced in Tibet, > with Sanskrit in the bhujimol approximate, and the Tibetan translation in a > Tibetic script. > > Prior to the use of Bhujimol, and alongside it until about 1350, a script was > used in Nepal that strongly resembles the East Indic script of medieval > Bengal and Bihar. This script does not have an official name, and could be > labelled "Nepalese," with qualification. It does not have the telltale fly > wings of bhujimol, instead marking "e" following a consonant, a curved line > resembling a parenthesis ( is placed in front of the consonant, For example, > te is (त. After a point, all bhujimol manuscripts are a hybrid with this > script, the vowel e optionally marked with a squiggle or with a ( . > > Rañjanā is a strictly calligraphic script, and has never been used to record > texts in handwritten manuscripts. It appears in manuscripts when an ornate > script is called for (e.g. titles, mantras, names of deities drawn in the > manuscript) and is frequently found on metal and art works in Nepal and > beyond (e.g. Tibet, China). > > There is currently a strong movement among Newar youth, spread through social > media outlets, to learn and preserve all these scripts, but rañjanā in > particular. > > Hope that helps, and does not confuse. > Sam Grimes > > On Sat, Dec 7, 2024 at 5:25 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Thank you Charles, >> You wrote: >> >>> There are a good number of Nepalese scripts that have been used throughout >>> the centuries, so Nepālākṣarā can mean any one of them like Rañjana, >>> Bhujimol, etc. The most commonly used one in the past few centuries is >>> Pracalit, which is indeed sometimes called Newari Script, but I suppose all >>> the others might also be called as such by some. Yes, like all Brāhmī >>> derived scripts, Nepalese scripts are generally written without the breaks >>> between words that one finds in Roman script, for example. >> >> Based on your comment " so Nepālākṣarā can mean any one of them " I'm >> surprised that the Cambridge university catalogue entries for some NGMCP >> manuscripts lists the script only as .Nepālākṣarā, >> See links below. Two manuscripts from 19th century and one from 14-15th >> century. >> See: >> https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01386/1 >> https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01164-00002/1 >> https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-02248/1 >> Thanks, >> Harry Spier >> _______________________________________________ >> INDOLOGY mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
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