[FairfieldLife] Indian books?

[cardemaister]

Just bought Kale's A Higher Sanskrit Grammar, from 1894
(Motilal Banarsidass).

I wonder if Indian books still are in general technically
(or whatever) that sucky. Or is the main reason perhaps
that the book is a reprint (1972, 1977, 1984, 1986, 1988,
1992, 1995, 2002, 2007)?

For instance, especially some of the devanaagarii characters are
quite messy and the Roman printing color is rather uneven.

Interesting(?) detail from the book:

The Aryans who were much fairer in color than the aborigines of
India are the Devas referred to in the name /Devanagari/ 
(from 'div', to shine, those of a brilliant complexion).

Re: [FairfieldLife] Indian books?

[Bhairitu]

cardemaister wrote:
 Just bought Kale's A Higher Sanskrit Grammar, from 1894
 (Motilal Banarsidass).

 I wonder if Indian books still are in general technically
 (or whatever) that sucky. Or is the main reason perhaps
 that the book is a reprint (1972, 1977, 1984, 1986, 1988,
 1992, 1995, 2002, 2007)?

 For instance, especially some of the devanaagarii characters are
 quite messy and the Roman printing color is rather uneven.

 Interesting(?) detail from the book:

 The Aryans who were much fairer in color than the aborigines of
 India are the Devas referred to in the name /Devanagari/ 
 (from 'div', to shine, those of a brilliant complexion).

Probably about the same.  A lot of Indian publishers are vanity 
publishers and you pay to get the book published.  They don't proofread 
much though nowadays these would probably be submitted as word processor 
files so the author could take care of proofreading.   As you go back in 
time some of the books were probably done with Linotype machines and 
whoever typed in the pages was likely to make some mistakes.  Reprints 
may have been done as an offset of an original.