vedic symbols in XeTeX

Question

How do I produce the vedic, anudatta and udatta via XeTeX. The one in this links gives

http://mirrors.ctan.org/language/devanagari/velthuis/doc/generic/velthuis/xetex-examples.tex

The normal Sanskrit compilation works but the vedic accents if compiled with similar commands doesn't work.

• Does anyone how we can work with XeTeX for typesetting Vedic Mantras or Texts.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{ifxetex}
\RequireXeTeX
\usepackage{fontspec}
\newcommand\dn{\catcode`\~=12
           \fontspec[Script=Devanagari,Mapping=velthuis-sanskrit]{Nakula}}

\let\origlabelitemi\labelitemi
\renewcommand\labelitemi{{\normalfont\origlabelitemi}}

\parindent=0pt

\begin{document}

\section{Examples}

{\dn
\begin{center}
\setlength{\fboxrule}{2pt}
\framebox[3.2cm][s]{.o ga.ne"saaya nama.h}
\end{center}
}
\end{document}

The above command works perfectly for non-vedic sanskrit, but once I start using udatta and anudatta it doesn't work at all.

Commands like this:

• \dn\dnveda _{a} which work well in devanagari doesn't seem to work here.

Answer 1

For the question of typing: The Vedic accents are not available on the standard keyboard layouts, it seems.

Which leaves: (a) direct input individual selection of characters from a character map (e.g., BabelMap); (b) almost-direct input via text editors where the unicode value can be keyed in and pressing Alt-X converts it to the glyph (e.g., LibreOffice Writer; BabelPad); (c) writing custom keyboards (OS dependent); (d) mapping a font in xelatex (here, using a made-up word, which GoogleTrans currently reports as meaning black powder):

Fine detail adjustments in the typesetting might be needed, depending on the actual words used.

(This mapping also implies that direct manipulation via lua code in lualatex should also be possible.)

Experiment shows that Latex macros of the sort \newcommand\myaccenta{\symbol{^^^^0951}} are seen as extraneous boxes at the type-setting stage and interrupt the letter-shaping mechanism.

Also, interesting news: a revision and update of the skt package seems to be in the pipeline. (Typing Sanskrit in TeX)

---

Code for the mapping example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Script=Devanagari,Mapping=vedic,Scale=1.5]{Noto Serif Devanagari}

\newfontface\translitd[Mapping=devanagari-to-iastb,Scale=1.1,Colour=red]{Noto Sans}% This is for the IAST-based transliteration only.

\newfontfamily\englishfont{Noto Serif}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{hindi}
\setotherlanguages{english}

\begin{document}
\section{\textenglish{Mapping}}
\textenglish{Test text:} कालेमूनि {\translitd कालेमूनि}

\vspace{12pt}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
,, & कालेमूनि,,  & कालेमू,,नि & काले,,मूनि & का,,लेमूनि \\
\end{tabular}

\vspace{12pt}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
.. & कालेमूनि..  & कालेमू..नि & काले..मूनि & का..लेमूनि \\
\end{tabular}

\vspace{12pt}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
(( & कालेमूनि((  & कालेमू((नि & काले((मूनि & का((लेमूनि \\
\end{tabular}

\vspace{12pt}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
)) & कालेमूनि))  & कालेमू))नि & काले))मूनि & का))लेमूनि \\
\end{tabular}

का,,ले..मू((नि))  
\end{document}

The .map file (to be converted to .tec format with teckit_compile):

; TECkit mapping for TeX input conventions <-> Unicode characters

LHSName "vedic" ;
RHSName "UNICODE"

pass(Unicode)

; ligatures from Knuth's original CMR fonts
U+002D U+002D           <>  U+2013  ; -- -> en dash
U+002D U+002D U+002D    <>  U+2014  ; --- -> em dash

U+0027          <>  U+2019  ; ' -> right single quote
U+0027 U+0027   <>  U+201D  ; '' -> right double quote
U+0022           >  U+201D  ; " -> right double quote

U+0060          <>  U+2018  ; ` -> left single quote
U+0060 U+0060   <>  U+201C  ; `` -> left double quote

U+0021 U+0060   <>  U+00A1  ; !` -> inverted exclam
U+003F U+0060   <>  U+00BF  ; ?` -> inverted question

; additions supported in T1 encoding
;;U+002C U+002C   <>  U+201E  ; ,, -> DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
U+003C U+003C   <>  U+00AB  ; << -> LEFT POINTING GUILLEMET
U+003E U+003E   <>  U+00BB  ; >> -> RIGHT POINTING GUILLEMET


; Here are the Vedic accents
 U+002C U+002C <>  U+0951; ॑ ,,
 U+002E U+002E <>  U+0952; ॒ ..
 U+0028 U+0028 <>  U+0953; ॓ ((
 U+0029 U+0029 <>  U+0954; ॔ ))

The key to the mapping is to choose combinations of characters that are easy to type and unlikely to be used elsewhere in the text. In this case, double comma ,, double dot .. double left bracket (( and double right bracket )). But other characters can be used, if desired.

As an aside, the font designer designs the font, including the marks. Here's a random sample:

Answer 2

I don't know anything of Devanagari and Sanskrit; but here's an example that I obtained first by compiling without the second line, then copying from the PDF and pasting.

% Requires font Nakula by John Smith,
% see http://bombay.indology.info/software/fonts/devanagari/index.html
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{ifxetex}
\RequireXeTeX
\usepackage{fontspec}
\newfontfamily{\sanskritfont}[Script=Devanagari,Mapping=velthuis-sanskrit]{Nakula}
\newcommand\dn{\catcode`\~=12 \sanskritfont}

\newfontfamily{\directsanskrit}[Script=Devanagari]{Nakula}

\begin{document}

{\dn .o ga.ne"saaya nama.h}

{\directsanskrit ॐ गणेशाय नमः}

\end{document}

As far as I can see, the two lines are identical.

The lines

\newfontfamily{\sanskritfont}[Script=Devanagari,Mapping=velthuis-sanskrit]{Nakula}
\newcommand\dn{\catcode`\~=12 \sanskritfont}

have the same effect as your

\newcommand\dn{\catcode`\~=12
           \fontspec[Script=Devanagari,Mapping=velthuis-sanskrit]{Nakula}}

but use XeTeX more efficiently.

Answer 3

Note: I don’t know Hindi nor can I read this.

If I input the text as plain Unicode, I always get the vedic accent marks. The following code gives me something which has the accents, as far as I can see.

%!TEX TS-program = xelatex
%!TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{fontspec,xltxtra,xunicode}
\setmainfont[Script=Devanagari,Mapping=velthuis-sanskrit]{Nakula}

\begin{document}

दि॒पदे॑ । शं चतु॑षपदे

\end{document}

If you want to change the Devanagari font, just exchange the Nakula option. Arial Unicode MS and Code2000 had seemnigly correct outputs (although with Code2000 the accents overlapped the vowel marks). Devanagari MT, however, did not work correctly for me.

You can find the vedic accents under:

• U+0951 DEVANAGARI STRESS SIGN UDATTA = Vedic tone svarita
• U+0952 DEVANAGARI STRESS SIGN ANUDATTA = Vedic tone anudatta

Although I don’t know what you meant by “Deergha Swarita” in your posted image, I suspect it might be U+1CDA (VEDIC TONE DOUBLE SVARITA), which I did not have available in any of my fonts.

Also confer the Unicode blocks Devanagari, Vedic Extensions and Devanagari Extended.