Proper romanization of Indic terms

How To- Romanization of Indic text.pdf

In publications, it is many times necessary to include Indic terms that cannot, or should not, be translated. Hence, we use the terms transliterated to latin script. In most scientific papers and other publications we find those terms transliterated very liberally. This results in two problems: (i) Ambiguity in their pronunciation (Eg: whether to elongate a vowel or not), (ii) Multiple spellings for a given word (Eg: Sourashtram, Saurastram).  This is the reason why good publishing houses use a transliteration standard which enforces consistency and improves readability. ISO 15919 is one such widely used standard which defines a transliteration/romanization scheme for all the Indic scripts/languages. It is a super-set of IAST which is defined for Sanskrit. 

Below are the most used Indic words in our project along with their transliteration in this standard.

Liberal Latin Telugu script Devanagari script ISO 15919
Raaga/Raag రాగ राग Rāga/Rāg
Taala/Taal తాళ ताल Tāla/Tāl
Carnatic కర్ణాటక कर्णाटक्/कर्णाटक Karṇāṭaka/Karṇāṭak
Hindustani హిందుస్థానీ हिंदुस्तानी Hindustānī
Swara స్వర स्वर Svara/Svar
Gamaka గమక गमक Gamaka/Gamak
Arohana ఆరోహణ आरोहण/आरिह Ārōhaṇa/Ārōh
Avarohana అవరోహణ अवरोहण/अवरोह Avarōhaṇa/Avrōh
Melakarta మేళకర్త मेलकर्ता Mēḷakarta/Mēlkartā
Thaat థాట్ ठाट Thāṭ/Ṭhāṭ
Sanchara సంచార संचार Sanchāra/Sanchār
Pakad పకడ్ पकड Pakaḍ
Kriti కృతి कृति Kr̥ti
Keertana కీర్తన कीर्तन Kīrtana/Kīrtan
Drupad దృపద్ ध्रुपद Dr̥pad/Dhrupad
Khayal ఖయాల్ खयाल Khayāl
Veena వీణ वीणा Vīṇa/Vīṇā
Sitar సితార్ सितार Sitār
Mridangam మృదంగం मृदंगम् Mr̥daṅgaṁ
Tabala తబలా तबला Tabalā/Tablā
Venu వేణు वॆणु Vēṇu
Bansuri బాన్సురి बांसुरी Bānsuri/Bānsurī
Brihaddesi బృహద్దేశి बृहद्दॆशी Br̥haddēśi/Br̥haddēśī
Sangeeta
Sampradaya
Pradarshini		 సంగీత సంప్రదాయ
ప్రదర్శిని		 संगीत संप्रदाय
प्रदर्शिनी		 Saṅgīta sampradāya
pradarśini/
Saṅgīta sampradāya
pradarśinī
Jaati జాతి जाति Jāti
Dirgha దీర్ఘ दीर्घ Dīrgha

 

We encourage everybody to use this standard for publications. To learn how to type these diacritic characters, the readers are referred to this document. It can also be found attached with this post. The document also contains instructions to compile tex files containing such characters. 

Using proper transilteration is specially important for those terms which have an indian context and meaning that needs to be preserved. Rāga and Tāla are examples of such terms.That said, few Indian terms have come to be part of the English vocabulary, like Carnatic & Hindustani for example. In such cases, we can also use the English terms.

--
Gōpāla Kr̥ṣṇa Kōḍūri