I should have some close-ups of the engravings on the pillars in Sarnath at least. The logic is similar enough to Devanagari and the rest of the Indic abugida scripts, despite its anciety. There are interesting charts showing how the scripts evolved, if memory serves they have one on the Sarnath museum wall in the lobby. (I may have a photo of that, too.)David N. Snyder wrote: I agree, considering the history, it would be nice to see and know how to read the Brahmi script and the Sinhalese is a good second choice too; love those circular movements of the script.
The circular shapes of Sinhalese are characteristic to South-Indian scripts, despite its being a North-Indian language (unlike the rest of them, which are Dravidian). As I recall, historically the rounded shapes had to do with available writing technology — too many sharp strokes would break the parchment, so round characters were easier to deal with.
Please, by all means. It's licensed under GPL, and I notice the same is true of DPR (which I will need to check out shortly), so all clear there.yuttadhammo wrote:diCrunch is great! Thanks so much for creating this useful tool. I wonder if you would mind if I incorporate some of it into the DPR?
In due course, as a part of my Python studies, I'd like to turn this into a desktop version as well, to make it more portable for people who may not have a web hosting account, or know how to run PHP/Apache on their local machines. It shouldn't be too hard to port over.
I will also be turning diCrunch into a plugin for an open-source CMS I've been working on for the last year and a half, so anyone interested in setting up a (community) site with integrated IAST/Indic script functionality can get the project going without software headaches. If someone has other applications in mind that would benefit people, feel free to shout out and let me know, or help yourselves and use as you wish.
I don't know if tattoos are a touchy or controversial subject here. As far as I understand, there's a whole Thai Buddhist temple tattoo tradition out there — although it seems to be influenced by native belief systems and practices (like much of modern Thai Buddhism with amulets and the rest). (See Sak Yant for reference.)Virgo wrote:Dear Jack, not to try to guess your intentions or to be critical, but is seems you may want these scripts for some artwork or possibly a tattoo? I may be wrong as well. But anyway, artwork and tattoos are also dukkha. The mind that looks at them is dukkha. The feeling they produce is dukkha, and so on and so forth.
Either way, I find it hard to understand how hacking ink into your skin would lead to more dukkha than scribbling ink on parchment in any fundamental sense, if the subject is fitting. Frankly, I believe it'd be quite beneficial for many to tattoo the triple seal on the back of their palm or something — might lead to a splinter-moment of mindfulness while hovering for that new iPhone.
Dukkha basically comes from tanha, not from tattoos — or artwork... Before you ask, I do have a good few tats on myself — sets of abstract symbols that carry fundamental meaning to me — until the aggregates eventually dissolve. And I don't think I'd be in dukkha if I woke up tomorrow and they were all gone — that'd be a grand omen, if anything!
And if I may be so bold as to say this, tattooing the triple gem on your body can be even more powerful an impression than verbally accepting ti-sarana. You can proclaim ti-sarana with your lips and then weasel out when the winds change, but hacking it into your skin with an understanding of its significance is tantamount to saying "I'll carry this with me for the rest of my life". Skillful means!