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XDVNG Font, devanAgarI, etc.

From the Bhakti List Archives

Shree • September 25, 1997 


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@usa.net						
website:    http://members.tripod.com/~satsang