गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

194 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
into the next line; intermediate divisions, rendered unavoidable here and there by printing
necessities have been made only where absolutely necessary for neatness in the arrange-
ment of the Texts.
A double hyphen is used to separate words in a sentence, which in the original are
written as one word, being joined together by the euphonic rules of saṁdhi. Where this
double hyphen is used, it is to be understood that a final consonant, and the following initial
vowel or consonant-and-vowel, are in the original expressed by one complex sign. Where it
is not used, it is to be understood of the orthography of the original, that, according to the
stage of the alphabet, the final consonant either has the modified broken form, which, in
the oldest stages of the alphabet, was used to indicate a consonant with no vowel attached
to it, or has the distinct sign of the virāma attached to it; and that the following initial
vowel or consonant has its full initial form. In the transcription of ordinary texts, the
double hyphen is probably unnecessary; except where there is the saṁdhi of final and
initial vowels. But, in the transcription of epigraphical records, the use of this sign is
unavoidable, for the purpose of indicating exactly the palæographical standard of the ori-
ginal texts.
The avagraha, or sign which indicates the elision of an initial a, is but rarely to be
met with in inscriptions, and does not occur at all in the present series. Where it does
occur, I find it most convenient to represent it by its own Dêvanâgarî sign.
So also, practice has shewn that it is more convenient to use the ordinary Dêvanâgarî
marks of punctuation; than to substitute the English signs for them.
Ordinary brackets are used for corrections and doubtful points; and square
brackets, for letters which are damaged and partially illegible in the original, or which,
being wholly illegible, can be supplied with certainty. An asterisk attached to letters or
marks of punctuation in square brackets, indicates that those letters or marks of punctuation
were omitted altogether in the original. As a rule, it is more convenient to use the brackets,
than to have recourse to footnotes; as the points to which attention is to be drawn, attract
notice far more readily. But notes are given instead, when there would be so many
brackets, close together, as to encumber the text and render it inconvenient to read. When
any letters in the original are wholly illegible and cannot be supplied, they are represented,
in metrical passages, by the sign for a long or a short syllable, as the case may be; and,
in prose passages, by points, at the rate, usually, of two for each akshara or syllable.