Devanagari (Sanskrit) Alphabet Font for Windows Needed
OmniMedia
Hello,
I am looking for a Devanagari (Sanskrit) Alphabet Font which I can use under
Windows (preferably TrueType, but I'll take what's available).
My searches through cyperspace revealed nothing so far, but I'm sure somebody
has put together such a font (I've searched at CICA, the Dharma archive,
Windows Online, etc.) The only thing even remotely close that I've found is
a Bengal font, but this is NOT the same.
So, if you know of where I could obtain it, either freeware, shareware, or
commercial, please do let me know. Of course, I'd even accept bitmaps of the
individual characters of the alphabet if I have to as I will eventually convert
them to bitmaps anyway (a long story, but I'd rather start with the font).
BTW, I want the real Devanagra alphabet, not a Romanized (Westernized) version
of the alphabet. I believe there are 48+ characters in the Devanagra alphabet,
according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Much thanks in advance!
Jon Noring
OmniMedia
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Richard M. Alderson III
writes:
>BTW, I want the real Devanagra alphabet, not a Romanized (Westernized) version
>of the alphabet. I believe there are 48+ characters in the Devanagra
>alphabet, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Devanagari is a little more complex than that, especially if you intend to use
bitmaps.
First, the vowel markers are appended to the consonantal characters, and in
several cases modify them to a greater or lesser extent.
Second, there is a large collection of consonantal ligatures, many more than
the basic list in the EB. You should look at Gonda's _Sanskrit Primer_ for a
good list of the ligatures.
Third, Devanagari is a syllabary rather than an alphabet. That is to say, each
"consonantal" character represents the consonantal followed by the vowel "a"
unless another vowel sign is appended, or the stroke which means "no following
vowel at all."
If you go for a bitmapped font, you will probably find you end up with more
than 500 different characters.
--
Rich Alderson You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
what not.
--J. R. R. Tolkien,
alde...@netcom.com _The Notion Club Papers_
Dr. Jai Maharaj
(Richard M. Alderson III) wrote:
>
> Third, Devanagari is a syllabary rather than an alphabet. That
> is to say, each "consonantal" character represents the
> consonantal followed by the vowel "a" unless another vowel sign
> is appended, or the stroke which means "no following vowel at
> all."
Namaste!
Permit me to add that the sound denoted by "a" in the above
description is not of the "a" in "father," "fat," "fate," "saw,"
etc. Instead, it is the slightest continuation of the sound of the
"consonant" being pronounced.
*-=Om Shanti=-* Jai Maharaj
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