symbol for "etcetera"?

[Marco Franceschini]

Hy to you all,

I'm new to the list, though I had mail exchanges in the past with some of the members. I have many question relating to abbreviations and symbols used in Tamil Grantha script: this is the first!

Do you know what the symbol in the last line (transcribed by me with {etc}) stands for? Does it really mean “etcetera”?

[e]tad vyāpya sthitā jagat | namaḥ {etc} namaḥ | yā saṃstutā pū[rvam...]

Following the edition, here the text (Devīmāhātmya 5.44) goes like this:

etad vyāpya sthitā jagat | namas tasyai namas tasyai namas tasyai namo namaḥ | yā saṃstutā pū[rvam...]

Thank you very much in advance for any suggestion!

Best wishes,

Marco Franceschini

[Shriramana Sharma]

On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 8:55 PM, Marco Franceschini
<marco.fra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do you know what the symbol in the last line (transcribed by me with {etc})
> stands for? Does it really mean “etcetera”?

In modern printings in Tamil Nadu whether in Grantha / Tamil /
Devanagari scripts, we often see the + symbol (which the symbol on
this ms is very close to) used for shortening repetitions which have
already occurred. It does not mean "etc" per se but somewhat like
"ditto" (but not exactly that too). One would understand it as "fill
this gap just as seen above".

I however would not care to speculate without further study whether it
is a native symbol or a re-use of the + from European origins...

--
Shriramana Sharma ஶ்ரீரமணஶர்மா श्रीरमणशर्मा

[Marco Franceschini]

Dear Shriramana Sharma,

thank you very much for your useful clarification! I've met already the "+" symbol you mention, but I was not sure whether the symbol in the picture was a graphic variant of it with the same meaning.

Best wishes,

Marco Franceschini
---

[Shriramana Sharma]

On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 4:27 AM, Marco Franceschini
<marco.fra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've met already the "+" symbol you mention

I would be most interested to hear (when you are satisfied enough with
the evidence to give an opinion) if you think it is a native use or
borrowed from the + of European origin...

[Marco Franceschini]

Strictly speaking, the counterpart of Grantha "+" is not European "+", but the "straight double quotation mark" (so called "dicto sign") or the "points of ellipsis" ("..."), the latter especially in the way they are used in mathematics, where they mean "and so forth, up to" ("1, 2, ..., 10").

On the other hand, the Grantha "+" can be interpreted as if meaning "plus (or) add [text as already written previously]", and thus it can be easily connected with the European "+".

In Europe the "+" sign came into use in the 14th century, as an abbreviation for Latin "et", "and"; it was used for addition since the 15th century. Grantha manuscripts are not older than the XVII century, so they aren't of great help here. One should look into Grantha inscriptions earlier than the 14th century, and see if the "+" sign was already used there.

Best,

Marco
---

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