The Personal Name Here Is Again Obscure. At

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Personal Name Here Is Again Obscure. At 342 THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM INDIA 1. 10 : " his conduct " ? 1. 11 : " and also his sons." 1. 12 : the personal name here is again obscure. At the end of the line are traces of the right-hand side of a letter, which might be samekh or beth; if we accept the former, it is possible to vocalize as Pavira-ram, i.e. Pavira-rdja, corresponding to the Sanskrit Pravira- rdja. The name Pravira is well known in epos, and might well be borne by a real man ; and the change of a sonant to a surd consonant, such as that of j to «, is quite common in the North-West dialects. L. D. BARNETT. THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM INDIA I must thank Mr. F. W. Thomas for his great kindness in sending me the photograph taken by Sir J. H. Marshall, and also Dr. Barnett for letting me see his tracing and transliteration. The facsimile is made from the photo- graph, which is as good as it can be. Unfortunately, on the original, the letters are as white as the rest of the marble, and it was necessary to darken them in order to obtain a photograph. This process inti'oduces an element of uncertainty, since in some cases part of a line may have escaped, and in others an accidental scratch may appear as part of a letter. Hence the following passages are more or less doubtful: line 4, 3PI; 1. 6, Tpfl; 1. 8, "123 and y\; 1. 9, the seventh and ninth letters; 1. 10, ID; 1. 12, the name. The difficulty of reading, where the words are unfamiliar, is increased by the similarity of some of the letters : 0> J, *1 (*"!?), and even "1, are liable to confusion; £ and PI in 1. 7 C*IPO), and 11. 8, 10; X. p. fl- No doubt if we had more material it would be possible to distinguish the forms. I read as follows :— Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 25 May 2018 at 14:39:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00048280 THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM INDIA 343 i Memorial Sy 'pvtrk 2 to DMIRKI for 3 the carving on NnianaKn nx 4 cedar and ivory wi -rtatib\ 5 . and they belonged to his father. POT TlTpfl p 6 Behold, this is my charge piTiwa *JT 7 . this Vohuvarda 8 . bequeathing, and when she was IT-IS j*na 9 ... our lord PDIDU (?) 10 . his kingdom Til:! ClXl 11 ... and also his sons enris ttno1? 12 ... to our lord PVIDDS (?) The first four lines (and perhaps the first six) are evidently continuous. Lines 6-10 ai-e certainly not so. Nothing seems to be lost before 1. 1 or at the end. On the right each line (?1. 6) begins with a full word. On the left nothing is missing but a letter here and there. Consequently it would appear that the inscription was originally engraved round a doorway or window, or more probably a panel containing a portrait (like e.g. the Nerab monument), thus— pro Line 1 is quite uncertain. A word for " memorial" is wanted. The first letter may be a V. The next may be a ""!, perhaps like the 1 (?) in 1. 6. Otherwise a certain "T does not occur. The word pi"-!)? is not found in this sense of "justification" or "acknowledgment", but it is quite a possible word. Cf. perhaps NJlplX, CIS. ii, 11315. 1. 2. The first word must be a personal name. The T might be "1 or even 3, the 1 might be T (or D?), the p might be fl. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 25 May 2018 at 14:39:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00048280 344 THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM INDIA It cannot be Ptolemy's Aafiipucrj (== South India), nor probably a Greek name A^/id^o?. 1. 4. There is no doubt about the reading HX " cedar ". The remaining'letters seem to be meant as one word, since elsewhere words are usually separated with some care. It would be read most naturally as NHIDiJB', which (unless it be an Indian word) is meaningless. If divided, j^ would mean "ivory", but NJTQJ is difficult. The 3 is unlike that in 1. 3. I suggest that it is a badly formed PI, and that the compound is a variant of the Hebrew D*!1PI3&J> (l Kings x, 22; 2 Chron. ix, 21), meaning simply " ivory ". 1. 5, if it follows without a break on 1. 4, may be translated " which belonged ". 1. 6. This and 1. 8 are the most difficult parts of the inscription. PI3T is certain. The preceding letters look like one word. The suffix ' shows that it must be a noun. The rt and n are certain, and the first * is probable. The other letters are 1 (or J), S (or 1), p (or T\ or "£). The 1 is strange, and no certain instance of it occurs elsewhere in the inscription. It seems necessary to divide the letters and read TWOS fPI, or °fl "IPl, making IPl— the end of a lost word, since the pronoun could hardly stand in the same phrase with POT. The word XlWpfl is not found in the sense of a " trust ", but it is quite possible. Or is it, after all, a Hebraism (cf. 1. 8) *fl"VX1 " and I designed " or " decorated " ? I confess it is more like that. Then |PI might be the pronoun, subject of 11PI in 1. 5, and the text would be continuous so far. 1. 7. PlTVfiPQ a Persian name ? Cf. Huvaredhi ? (Justi, Iran, Namenbuch, s.v.). ^T may agree with a previous noun now lost, or with °1PO " the said V." 1. 8. The first letter is probably a 12 which has lost its two top strokes (cf. 1. 10). It might perhaps be PI (cf. 1. 7), but in the certain cases of PI its right-hand stroke is more slanting. The 1 might be a J. The ]"l is more probable than j* after C, but it might be a p (pfc^JIPl). If we read ri&J'")1)^, it can only be a Hebraism (cf. on 1. 6), a feminine participle Hiphil referring to PmHPQ, which will be a feminine name. Then fVlPI Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 25 May 2018 at 14:39:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00048280 THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION' FROM INDIA 345 naturally agrees with the same. The intervening word must be '"TDI, though the 3, as it appears, is more like a "1, as Dr. Barnett reads it. 1. 9. The name is very uncertain. Its second and fourth letters should be 1 or "T. If we were right in reading nTTlini in 1. 7, the second letter, at least, ought to be 1. The fifth may be the same, with its top stroke lost, or a 1. The third is the most puzzling. The top is very small for a p. It might possibly be a V, as Dr. Barnett takes it, but the tail looks more like n scratch on the marble than an intentional stroke. Then what can the small remaining head be ? I suspect that the name is the same as that in 1. 12. As the name of some important personage, perhaps a king (cf. lUli^bD in 1. 10), it is written large here (so iTiTfirO in 1. 7), hut smaller when repeated in 1. 12. Both names" have the same title JX"lO, and in so short an inscription there does not seem room for the mention of two such persons. If they are the same the third letter may be a strangely formed * in both cases. In the Elephantine papyri JfcOD is the title of the Persian governor. 1.10. The first letter is the same as in 1. 8. Dr. Barnett takes both as n, but PlfflD/Fl is a very unlikely word here. The last letter must be PI, though only a thin outline of it remains. 1. 12. See above on 1. 9. The second letter of the name as it stands is a clear *l. The third seems to be a badly formed '. The other two may be 1 or T. At the end is a trace of {?, which need not necessarily be part of the name. Some letters may be missing at the end of lines 9-12. If 11. 11, 12 are continuous the meaning may be either the sons of P." or his sons (did or gave something) to P." As to the date, since the names are not identified, we can only judge from the forms of the letters. Note especially the !"l> T> *> 7> fi> J?- Unfortunately we have no other Aramaic inscription from India for comparison, and must therefore look elsewhere. All these letters are far removed from the archaic forms, e.g. of Sinjirli. The n> Ti y are very like the forms used in the Elephantine papyri—allowing for the difference between carving and Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 25 May 2018 at 14:39:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
Recommended publications
  • On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet
    - ON THE <)|{I<; IN <>F TIIK INDIAN BRAHMA ALPHABET GEORG BtfHLKi; SECOND REVISED EDITION OF INDIAN STUDIES, NO III. TOGETHER WITH TWO APPENDICES ON THE OKU; IN OF THE KHAROSTHI ALPHABET AND OF THK SO-CALLED LETTER-NUMERALS OF THE BRAHMI. WITH TIIKKK PLATES. STRASSBUKi-. K A K 1. I. 1 1M I: \ I I; 1898. I'lintccl liy Adolf Ilcil/.haiisi'ii, Vicniiii. Preface to the Second Edition. .As the few separate copies of the Indian Studies No. Ill, struck off in 1895, were sold very soon and rather numerous requests for additional ones were addressed both to me and to the bookseller of the Imperial Academy, Messrs. Carl Gerold's Sohn, I asked the Academy for permission to issue a second edition, which Mr. Karl J. Trlibner had consented to publish. My petition was readily granted. In addition Messrs, von Holder, the publishers of the Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, kindly allowed me to reprint my article on the origin of the Kharosthi, which had appeared in vol. IX of that Journal and is now given in Appendix I. To these two sections I have added, in Appendix II, a brief review of the arguments for Dr. Burnell's hypothesis, which derives the so-called letter- numerals or numerical symbols of the Brahma alphabet from the ancient Egyptian numeral signs, together with a third com- parative table, in order to include in this volume all those points, which require fuller discussion, and in order to make it a serviceable companion to the palaeography of the Grund- riss.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Indian Mathematical Evolution Since Counting
    Journal of Statistics and Mathematical Engineering e-ISSN: 2581-7647 Volume 5 Issue 3 Ancient Indian Mathematical Evolution since Counting 1 2 Sankar Prasad Mukherjee , Sandip Ghanta* 1Research Guide, 2Research Scholar 1,2Department of Mathematics, Seacom Skills University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Email: *[email protected] DOI: Abstract This paper is an endeavor how chronologically since inception and into growth of mathematics occurred in Ancient India with an effort of counting to establish the numeral system through different ages, i.e., Rigveda, Yajurvada, Buddhist, Indo-Bactrian, Bramhi, Gupta and Devanagari Periods. Ancient India’s such contribution was of immense value helped to accelerate the progress of Mathematical development up to modern age as we see today. Keywords: Brahmi numerals, centesimal scale, devanagari, rigveda, kharosthi numerals, yajurveda INTRODUCTION main striking feature being counting and This research paper is an endeavor to evolution of numeral system thereby. synchronize all the historical research with essence of pre-historic and post-historic Mathematical Evolution in Vedic Period respectively interwoven into a texture of Decimal Number System in the Rigveda evolution process of Mathematics. The first Numbers are represented in decimal system form of writing human race was not (i.e., base 10) in the Rigveda, in all other literature but Mathematics. Arithmetic Vedic treatises, and in all subsequent Indian what is today was felt as an essential need texts. No other base occurs in ancient for day to day necessity of human race. In Indian texts, except a few instances of base various countries at various point of time, 100 (or higher powers of 10).
    [Show full text]
  • 16-Sanskrit-In-JAPAN.Pdf
    A rich literary treasure of Sanskrit literature consisting of dharanis, tantras, sutras and other texts has been kept in Japan for nearly 1400 years. Entry of Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures into Japan was their identification with the central axis of human advance. Buddhism opened up unfathomed spheres of thought as soon as it reached Japan officially in AD 552. Prince Shotoku Taishi himself wrote commentaries and lectured on Saddharmapundarika-sutra, Srimala- devi-simhanada-sutra and Vimala-kirt-nirdesa-sutra. They can be heard in the daily recitation of the Japanese up to the day. Palmleaf manuscripts kept at different temples since olden times comprise of texts which carry immeasurable importance from the viewpoint of Sanskrit philology although some of them are incomplete Sanskrit manuscripts crossed the boundaries of India along with the expansion of Buddhist philosophy, art and thought and reached Japan via Central Asia and China. Thousands of Sanskrit texts were translated into Khotanese, Tokharian, Uigur and Sogdian in Central Asia, on their way to China. With destruction of monastic libraries, most of the Sanskrit literature perished leaving behind a large number of fragments which are discovered by the great explorers who went from Germany, Russia, British India, Sweden and Japan. These excavations have uncovered vast quantities of manuscripts in Sanskrit. Only those manuscripts and texts have survived which were taken to Nepal and Tibet or other parts of Asia. Their translations into Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian fill the gap, but partly. A number of ancient Sanskrit manuscripts are strewn in the monasteries nestling among high mountains and waterless deserts.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Writing
    History of Writing On present archaeological evidence, full writing appeared in Mesopotamia and Egypt around the same time, in the century or so before 3000 BC. It is probable that it started slightly earlier in Mesopotamia, given the date of the earliest proto-writing on clay tablets from Uruk, circa 3300 BC, and the much longer history of urban development in Mesopotamia compared to the Nile Valley of Egypt. However we cannot be sure about the date of the earliest known Egyptian historical inscription, a monumental slate palette of King Narmer, on which his name is written in two hieroglyphs showing a fish and a chisel. Narmer’s date is insecure, but probably falls in the period 3150 to 3050 BC. In China, full writing first appears on the so-called ‘oracle bones’ of the Shang civilization, found about a century ago at Anyang in north China, dated to 1200 BC. Many of their signs bear an undoubted resemblance to modern Chinese characters, and it is a fairly straightforward task for scholars to read them. However, there are much older signs on the pottery of the Yangshao culture, dating from 5000 to 4000 BC, which may conceivably be precursors of an older form of full Chinese writing, still to be discovered; many areas of China have yet to be archaeologically excavated. In Europe, the oldest full writing is the Linear A script found in Crete in 1900. Linear A dates from about 1750 BC. Although it is undeciphered, its signs closely resemble the somewhat younger, deciphered Linear B script, which is known to be full writing; Linear B was used to write an archaic form of the Greek language.
    [Show full text]
  • A STUDY of WRITING Oi.Uchicago.Edu Oi.Uchicago.Edu /MAAM^MA
    oi.uchicago.edu A STUDY OF WRITING oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu /MAAM^MA. A STUDY OF "*?• ,fii WRITING REVISED EDITION I. J. GELB Phoenix Books THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS oi.uchicago.edu This book is also available in a clothbound edition from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS TO THE MOKSTADS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright 1952 in the International Copyright Union. All rights reserved. Published 1952. Second Edition 1963. First Phoenix Impression 1963. Printed in the United States of America oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE HE book contains twelve chapters, but it can be broken up structurally into five parts. First, the place of writing among the various systems of human inter­ communication is discussed. This is followed by four Tchapters devoted to the descriptive and comparative treatment of the various types of writing in the world. The sixth chapter deals with the evolution of writing from the earliest stages of picture writing to a full alphabet. The next four chapters deal with general problems, such as the future of writing and the relationship of writing to speech, art, and religion. Of the two final chapters, one contains the first attempt to establish a full terminology of writing, the other an extensive bibliography. The aim of this study is to lay a foundation for a new science of writing which might be called grammatology. While the general histories of writing treat individual writings mainly from a descriptive-historical point of view, the new science attempts to establish general principles governing the use and evolution of writing on a comparative-typological basis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Slow Deaths of Writing
    News Focus A diverse group of scholars ponders not just why scripts vanish, but why they sometimes survive so long The Slow Deaths of Writing OXFORD,U.K.—The biblical God punished ing Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mayan glyphs, the Sumerian language of Mesopotamia. humanity for its arrogance by creating in- and Sumerian cuneiform, plus some less tra- More than 3000 years later in 75 C.E., a numerable languages—nearly 7000 at lat- ditional recording systems (see sidebar, Babylonian scribe in a crumbling temple est count. Writing systems, however, es- p. 32), in order to discern larger patterns in completed an astronomical tablet written in caped the curse. During the 5 millennia the scripts’ last gasps. “Their decline is as wedge-shaped symbols impressed in wet since writing first emerged on the same worthy of investigation as their origin,” says clay with a reed stylus. This work, the last Mesopotamian plain as the legendary Tower Oxford Egyptologist John Baines. He and dated example of cuneiform, was completed of Babel, fewer than 100 major scripts his colleagues believe that the death of in the same way as the earliest known have appeared. But once born, they can be scripts can provide new insight into cultural tablets. Scholars have long marveled that surprisingly durable. A handful of re- collapse and the relationship between a script this awkward and difficult system, which re- searchers are now taking a closer look at and its culture. But they also differ in how far quired years of training, survived for so long how scripts vanish to glean insight into to go in comparing script disappearance.
    [Show full text]
  • Learn-The-Aramaic-Alphabet-Ashuri
    Learn The ARAMAIC Alphabet 'Hebrew' Ashuri Script By Ewan MacLeod, B.Sc. Hons, M.Sc. 2 LEARN THE ARAMAIC ALPHABET – 'HEBREW' ASHURI SCRIPT Ewan MacLeod is the creator of the following websites: JesusSpokeAramaic.com JesusSpokeAramaicBook.com BibleManuscriptSociety.com Copyright © Ewan MacLeod, JesusSpokeAramaic.com, 2015. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into, a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, scanning, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission from the copyright holder. The right of Ewan MacLeod to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the copyright holder's prior consent, in any form, or binding, or cover, other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Jesus Spoke AramaicTM is a Trademark. 3 Table of Contents Introduction To These Lessons.............................................................5 How Difficult Is Aramaic To Learn?........................................................7 Introduction To The Aramaic Alphabet And Scripts.............................11 How To Write The Aramaic Letters....................................................... 19
    [Show full text]
  • Early Chinese and Middle-Eastern Objects from Archeological Sites in Thailand Reflecting Cultural Exchange Tarapong Srisuchat
    Early Chinese and Middle-Eastern objects from archeological sites in Thailand reflecting cultural exchange Tarapong Srisuchat Thailand is located on the Southeast Asian mainland with its southern and eastern parts adjoining the Andaman and South China seas. This country is a land bridge between the mainland to the north and the archipelagos to the south. Evidence exists reflecting cultural interaction, migration and the settlement of various ethnic groups from time to time. According to archeological evidence, early settlement in the country can be dated back from the prehistoric period, 40,000 B.P. e.g.. The cave site Tham Rong Rian in Krabi in the South (Anderson, 1986). Later on at a well-known Bronze Age site, Ban Chiang in the Northeast, which is dated 3,000 B.P. a civilized community developed, having a social standard close to that of an early historical state (Charoenwongsa, 1987). A real historical state in which the inhabitants adopted a foreign script and religious concepts was built up around the 1st century B.C.; Indians are considered to be the first foreigners to have made contact with the local people and to have brought to them the attributes of what we consider the historic world. Legends and historical records indicate that Indians came to Thailand for two main purposes, commerce and the dissemination of their faiths, Buddhism and Hinduism; other navigators such as the Chinese and the Middle Easterners made contact with Thailand later. While the early interaction between these nations by the sea-route is indisputable, contact with the land route should be considered as well.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Syriac: an Elementary Grammar with Readings From
    INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC An Elementary Grammar with Readings from Syriac Literature Wheeler M. Thackston IBEX Publishers Bethesda, Maryland Introduction to Syriac An Elementary Grammar with Readings from Syriac Literature by Wheeler M. Thackston Copyright © 1999 Ibex Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or retransmitted in any manner whatsoever, except in the form of a review, without written permission from the publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Services—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 IBEX Publishers Post Office Box 30087 Bethesda, Maryland 20824 U.S.A. Telephone: 301-718-8188 Facsimile: 301-907-8707 www.ibexpub.com LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Thackston, W.M. (Wheeler Mcintosh), 1944- Introduction to Syriac : an elementary grammar with readings from Syriac literature / by W. M. Thackston. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-936347-98-8 1. Syriac language —Grammar. I. Title. PJ5423T53 1999 492'.382421~dc21 99-39576 CIP Contents PREFACE vii PRELIMINARY MATTERS I. The Sounds of Syriac: Consonants and Vowels x II. Begadkepat and the Schwa xii III. Syllabification xiv IV. Stress xv V. Vocalic Reduction and Prosthesis xv VI. The Syriac Alphabet xvii VII. Other Orthographic Devices xxi VIII. Alphabetic Numerals xxiii IX. Comparative Chart of Semitic Consonants xxiv X. Preliminary Exercise xxvi
    [Show full text]
  • Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
    Component-I (A) – Personal details: Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. & Dr. K. Muniratnam Director i/c, Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore Dr. Sayantani Pal Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Component-I (B) – Description of module: Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Epigraphy Module Name/Title Kharosthi Script Module Id IC / IEP / 15 Pre requisites Kharosthi Script – Characteristics – Origin – Objectives Different Theories – Distribution and its End Keywords E-text (Quadrant-I) : 1. Introduction Kharosthi was one of the major scripts of the Indian subcontinent in the early period. In the list of 64 scripts occurring in the Lalitavistara (3rd century CE), a text in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Kharosthi comes second after Brahmi. Thus both of them were considered to be two major scripts of the Indian subcontinent. Both Kharosthi and Brahmi are first encountered in the edicts of Asoka in the 3rd century BCE. 2. Discovery of the script and its Decipherment The script was first discovered on one side of a large number of coins bearing Greek legends on the other side from the north western part of the Indian subcontinent in the first quarter of the 19th century. Later in 1830 to 1834 two full inscriptions of the time of Kanishka bearing the same script were found at Manikiyala in Pakistan. After this discovery James Prinsep named the script as ‘Bactrian Pehelevi’ since it occurred on a number of so called ‘Bactrian’ coins. To James Prinsep the characters first looked similar to Pahlavi (Semitic) characters.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ARAMAIC of the ZOHAR These Course Handouts Are Also The
    The Aramaic Language of the Zohar I * Fall 2011 * Justin Jaron Lewis THE ARAMAIC OF THE ZOHAR These course handouts are also the first draft of a textbook. As you read them or work through them, please let the author know of any mistakes, anything that doesn’t work well for you in your language study, and any suggestions for improvements! _____________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Purpose of this Course The purpose of this course is to give you a reading knowledge of the Aramaic language of the Zohar. By the end of the course you should be able to read passages of the Zohar in the original, if not without the help of a translation, then at least without depending on the translation blindly. The particular dialect of Aramaic used in the Zohar does not exist as a spoken language and perhaps never did, and we are aiming for a reading knowledge only. This means that you will be spared many of the typical challenges of language study, such as mastering correct pronunciation or being able to express yourself in conversation. This, and the fact that the Zohar’s core vocabulary is quite small, should make this easy as language courses go. Nevertheless, just as with any language study, you’ll want to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible, working hard and, most importantly, steadily, in order to achieve fluency — in this case the ability to read the Zohar fluently. Background The Zohar, which first began to circulate in manuscript in late thirteenth-century Spain, is the central text of Kabbalah, a largely esoteric but very influential tradition which encompasses distinct approaches to theology, spiritual practice, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Universal Scripts Project: Statement of Significance and Impact
    Universal Scripts Project: Statement of Significance and Impact The Universal Scripts Project expands the capabilities of the Internet by providing digital access to text materials from a variety of modern and historical cultures whose writing systems are not currently included in the international standard for electronic representation of scripts, known as Unicode. People who write in these scripts find it difficult to use email, compose and send documents electronically, and post documents on the World Wide Web, without relying on nonstandard fonts or other cumbersome workarounds, and are therefore left out of the “technological revolution.” About 66 scripts are currently included in the Unicode standard, but over 80 are not. Some 40 of these missing scripts belong to modern linguistic minorities in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China, and other countries in Southeast Asia; about 40 are scripts of historical importance. The project’s goal for 2007–2008 is to provide the standards bodies overseeing character sets with proposals for 15 scripts to be included in the Unicode standard. The scripts selected for inclusion include 9 modern minority scripts and 6 historical scripts. The need is urgent, because the entire process, from first proposal to acceptance, typically takes from 2 to 5 years, and support among corporations and national bodies for adding more scripts to Unicode is uncertain. If the proposals are not submitted soon, these user communities will not be able to use their scripts in the near future. The scripts selected for this grant have established scholarly and user-community connections, which will help guarantee that the proposals meet the users' needs.
    [Show full text]