Downloads

I have finally got around to creating a downloads page. At present the only menu link is on the index page. On the downloads page you will find fonts I use; keyboard maps for Windows that I've created and regularly use for Roman with Unicode diacritics and देवनागरि; and a desk top interface for the digital Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary which is very handy. As far as I know I'm free to give this stuff away, but let me know if you think there are copyright problems.

I'm interested to get feedback on whether the keyboards work and on what systems. So if you try them, please drop me a line to let me know how you get on.

The keyboards are especially cool because they allow you to type characters in whatever application you want (notepad even which is what I use to write Visible Mantra) and this is good because it allows more accurate searching of Google for instance compare these three searches: appamāda vs appamada vs अप्पमाद. I have a Tibetan keyboard for writing Sanskrit as well which is a bit more complex - hope to document it soon and upload it.

BTW if you use Firefox you can specify different fonts for Roman and Devanāgarī - my current set up is Times Ext Roman for Western and Arial Unicode MS for Devanāgarī. There are lots of Devanāgarī Unicode fonts around now.

Tattoo ultimatim...

I thought I'd share this as it gave me a laugh this morning:

Hi,

Is your writing of OM AH HUM in Siddham writing accurate?

I am getting at tattoo of it tomorrow at 4pm UK time.

Thank you very much

Chris

Never heard from Chris before. Probably never hear from him again. However since my calligraphy is quite distinctive I'll know it's him if we ever meet. I'm always tempted at this point to make a correction so that the Siddhaṃ reads something amusing... perhaps ahaṃ mantraṃ corayāmi sma?

Siddhaṃ is a script - Sanskrit is a language.

Jin wrote in :

Is there any possibility that you could write out
Heart Blazing Forth
in Siddham for me?
I also would like to see the Siddham character for
Brotherhood, if possible.

This is a typical request and I thought it might help readers if I give my standard response (slightly expanded) in public. Siddhaṃ is a script. Sanskrit is a language. I would have to translate the English words into Sanskrit before writing them in Siddhaṃ. At present I don't know enough Sanskrit to help much - I read and write Siddhaṃ, but don't know much Sanskrit (started lessons yesterday so hopefully this will change). This is because I'm interested primarily in mantras, not languages.

There are many Sanskrit dictionaries on the internet if you just want to look up words. To look up an English word one might use for instance: SpokenSanskrit.de. This gives you an answer in a form of Roman script and in Devanāgarī.

Or you might use the Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary on Koeln Uni dictionary site for looking up Sanskrit words in various form of Roman script. The output is Devanāgarī.

If you want phrases translated into Sanskrit then can I recommend you try: Free Online Translations.

I might have a chance of writing something in Siddhaṃ if you could supply me with Sanskrit in a fully diacriticised form. Diacritics matter! I can work with various systems of indicating diacritics ITRANS, or HK, or Velthius... or even Devanāgarī which I also read quite fluently (again ironically I know the sounds, but not what they mean!)

I hope this clarifies what is on offer here. I'm currently very busy with learning Sanskrit and producing my book - so most other stuff is on hold.

A Visible Mantra Book

I have two projects which will fill up most of the next year. Firstly I will be turning the site into a book and publishing it. I'll be setting up my own imprint to do this and plan a series of books on mantra and related subjects based on this site and my blog, including a primer on how to write Siddhaṃ. The preliminary work on the book has brought to light very many typos and mis-spellings (in English and Sanskrit) and some factual errors which I will correct in the book first, and then on the site. For the book I will use fonts for Tibetan and Devanāgarī which will considerably improve the look for those scripts. I'm investigating a Ranjana/Lantsa font but these seem less well developed - I'm undecided as to how important Lantsa is in a Western context. The only Siddhaṃ font I am aware of is in brushstyle and is rather unattractive - so I'll use my calligraphy for Siddhaṃ. So generally speaking the book will have some distinct advanatges over the website - and the images will be hi-res as well.

I'm also finally going to formally learn Sanskrit at Cambridge University. Hopefully in the long run this will lead to considerable improvement in the site.

I think at some point I will start using a Tibetan font on the website - although there is Unicode for Tibetan, not many standard fonts include the Tibetan range, so it would require that readers install a font. I've been avoiding that, but realise that I'm unlikely to have the time to really master the Uchen script. I still haven't seen any other Tibetan script fonts.