A volume of this kind inevitably has a large number of transliterated words in several languages. To make the text readable without sacrificing its scholarly appeal, we have chosen to use diacritical marks for book titles and direct quotations, and to keep them to a minimum elsewhere; in some instances, notably where metrical considerations are important, they are used more extensively. For Devanagari, the transliteration used follows R.S. McGregor, The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993), with the exception that nasalised vowels are transliterated with a ṃ instead of ṁ. For Persian words, we have slightly adapted existing systems as below. In spite of our efforts, we have not achieved complete consistency.
|
ا A |
ﺏ B |
ﭖ P |
ﺕ T |
ﺙ S̱ |
|
|
ﺝ J |
ﭺ CH |
ﺡ Ḥ |
ﺥ KH |
||
|
ﺩ D |
ﺫ Ẕ |
ﺭ R |
ﺯ Z |
ﮊ ZH |
|
|
ﺱ S |
ﺵ SH |
ﺹ Ṣ |
ﺽ Ż |
||
|
ﻁ Ṭ |
ﻅ Ẓ |
ﻉ ‘ |
ﻍ GH |
ﻑ F |
ﻕ Q |
|
ﮎ K |
ﮒ G |
ﻝ L |
ﻡ M |
ﻥ N |
و W,V, Ū (O only if specified as majhul) ﻩ H
ﯼ Y, Ī (E only if specified as majhul)
short vowels: a, i, u
This volume necessarily makes reference to four discrete calendrical systems.
Where otherwise unmarked, we use the Common/Christian Era (Anno Domini), denoted “CE”.
The Islamic calendar (denoted “AH”: Anno Hegirae, or Hijri year), commenced in the year 622 CE. A lunar calendar, it does not correspond directly to the Gregorian Calendar, and the year 2015 CE is 1436-37 AH.
The Vikram Samvat calendar, denoted “VS”, is between 56-57 years ahead of the Common Era, thus 2015 CE covers 2071-72 VS.
Finally, the Banggabda or Bengali Calendar, denoted “BA”, is between 593-94 years behind the Common Era, thus 2015 CE is 1421-22 BA.
Both VS and BA are solar calendars, but do not begin in January, so there is no precise overlap with CE.
