Usage

Add the file dot.emacs to the startup file (.emacs). This loads sanskrit.el and the Sanskrit keyboard can be activated under Emacs21 with Shift-F10, where one needs to select "sanskrit". The diacritics are then accessible by pressing "." followed by a letter (a list of possible completions is given in the status line), which provides underdot characters, and "#" plus a letter for all the other Sanskrit diacritics. Details should become obvious through a glance at "sanskrit.el", which is a modification of Stefan Baums's original file, available here. Another system, where the accents are typed after the letter (utf-8-input.el), has been conceived by Richard Mahoney. Due to the flexibility of emacs adaptations to individual typing habits are possible.

The usage of the TeX commands will be obvious through a glance at the example files. There are only few user commands, namely the two style files: skt-rm.sty and skt-dn.sty, and the macros for switching to Devanagari: \Nag, \Nagsl and \Nagi.

For processing Sanskrit in transliteration the single command \usepackage{skt-rm} is sufficient. A file would look as follows:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{t1enc,skt-rm}

\begin{document}

\begin{verse}
vijñaptimātram evedam asadarthāvabhāsanāt\\
yathā taimirakasyāsatkeśoṇḍukādidarśanam 
\end{verse}

Vasubandhu's \emph{Viṃśatikā} 1 (with the correct readings by the way).

Some Tamil: 

\begin{verse}
uḷḷārkol kātalar oṇṭoṭi namtiṟam\\
vaḷvār muraciṉ kuralpōl iṭitturaṟi\\
nallār maṉaṅkavarat tōṉṟip paṇimoḻiyaik\\
kolvāṅkuk kūrnta(tu)ik kār.   
\end{verse}


\end{document}

For typesetting Devangari the package skt-dn is invoked and the text to be typeset in Devangari has to be explicitly tagged. Again an example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{t1enc,skt-dn} & or skt-dnb, skt-dnc for the other styles.
\begin{document}

Test for the various Nāgarī font variants.

\Nag{vijñaptimātram}    %   "roman, or rather standard"
\Nagi{vijñaptimātram}  %   "slanted"
\Nagbf{vijñaptimātram}  %   "boldface"

\end{document}

The example files contained in the directory /user/examples/ should be self-explanatory.

One more complex use of skt-dn.sty in a Nāgarī text edition, which uses the slanted Nāgarī for the variants is also given. It presupposes ledmac, a version of edmacs for direct use in LaTeX.

J Hanneder (hanneder@indologie.uni-halle.de )