XDVNG Font, devanAgarI, etc.

[Guest guest]

namaskaar,

> I picked up the dEvanAgarI font ['Xdvng'] from this web, but find it is

> extremely unsatisfactory. Many important diacriticals [like signs for

> 'i','u' long & short, E`, 'halantam'] are missing, and many letterings

> unnecessary for Sanskrit/Hindi [but perhaps representing Urdu sounds]

> have been introduced; quite a few of the 'samyuktAkshara' [compound

> letters] keys are entirely redundant, as they can be produced with

> standard diacriticals, while crucial ones like dya, dva, SrI are

> missing.

>

I have used the XDVNG font for creating web pages for some sanskrit stotras

and I find that it does handle the required maatraas etc. It is probably

difficult ot use directly in a word-processor - I haven't tried that. It

was created for use with Sandeep Sibal's JTRANS editor which has options

for creating both sanskrit & Hindi documents - hence the options for urdu

letters. Please see the following for more details.

http://weed.arch.com.inter.net/~sibal/jtrans/

 

I am however using, Avinash Chopade's ITRANS 5.1 where I can use the same

ASCII input for creating both the devanaagarii output and Romanized

sanskrit output with diacritical marks. It can also be used for creating

output in other Indian scripts. I know that Marathi, Gujarati and Telugu

can also work from the same input. We were trying to create an automatic

conversion of it for Tamil Script but have not been very sucessful at it,

as there is no one-to-one correspondence between sanskrit to tamil.

> Can somebody give me a web-site which can give a sound and scientific

> dEvanAgari system please?

 

If you are looking for a PC based system, there is an excellent package

called ITRANSlator which runs under Windows95. It converts the ascii input

to devanaagarii, you make corrections to the ascii and can see the

devanaagarii in the other window. It is pretty easy to install and use.

Please see

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5105/Itranslt.html

for details. This is also a freeware and the required true type font comes

with it.

 

Recently, I converted Kalyani's post on VishhNu Stotram from Ananda

Raamaayana, She has mailed me the original so that I can proofread it and

make corrections. Please see the following for a version with XDVNG as well

as Romanized Sanskrit version (you will need the Washington Indic or

CSUtopia fonts for it). It is at

ftp://jaguar.cs.utah.edu/private/sanskrit/incoming/VISHHNU.IHT.htm

 

All of these follow the following encoding scheme:

-----------

ITRANS 5.1 Encoding for Devanagari (Hindi/Marathi/Sanskrit)

 

This section describes the ITRANS encoding, for Devanagari. This is the

basic encoding used for all Indic language scripts. Consult the individual

language manuals in the ITRANS archive (ITRANS/doc/*.itx files) for exact

details on every language supported by ITRANS.

 

Vowels (dependent and independent):

-------

a aa / A i ii / I u uu / U

R^i R^I L^i L^I

e ai o au aM aH

 

Consonants:

-----------

k kh g gh ~N

ch Ch j jh ~n

T Th D Dh N

t th d dh n

p ph b bh m

y r l v / w

sh Sh s h L

x / kSh GY / j~n / dny shr

R (for marathi half-RA)

L / ld (marathi LLA)

 

Specials/Accents:

-----------------

Anusvara: .n / M / .m (dot on top of previous consonant/vowel)

Avagraha: .a (`S' like symbol basically to replace a after o)

Ardhachandra: .c (for vowel sound as in english words `cat' or `talk')

Chandra-Bindu: .N (chandra-bindu on top of previous letter)

Halant: .h (to get half-form of the consonant - no vowel -

virama)

Visarga: H (visarga - looks like a colon character)

Om: OM, AUM (Om symbol)

-----

 

I would like to convert the very knowledegable posts in this list which

provide us with the meanings of the stotras etc. so that they can be

available in devanaagarii also. It would be very helpful, if we can try to

follow the above scheme for sanskrit.

 

Hope this information is useful to you in your search for a devanaagarii

system. If I can help in any way, please do let me know.

 

Regards,

 

Shree

--

email: shree

website: http://members.tripod.com/~satsang