Talk:The Mahabharata/Book 1: Adi Parva

Garuda, not Gadura

At numerous places in the book 'Garuda' is consistently misspelled as 'Gadura' e.g. at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Mahabharata/Book_1:_Adi_Parva/Section_XXIV , second paragraph "And Gadura said, 'Let no creature be afraid; and as ye also are in a fright at sight of my terrible form, I will diminish my energy.'"".

See: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda - https://www.britannica.com/topic/Garuda 103.203.63.38 06:32, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

That is the way how the author of this book spelled it, see Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/124. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 09:41, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

Oh no, that's obviously wrong... I tracked down a somewhat modern version of this very same book on Amazon and that edition has the correct spelling.

Would it be possible to add an editorial footnote at the first occurrence of 'Gadura' in the text to indicate the misspelling so that readers are not led astray? 103.203.63.35 18:47, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

We don't editorialize like that. We can use the {{SIC}} template if this is a clear misspelling, to indicate it is misspelled and what the correct one should be. Assuming, that is, is was also a mistake at the time. Some spellings no longer in use were correct at the time they were used. But if this is universally an error the SIC template is the best way to handlt the issue. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:16, 14 August 2024 (UTC) --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:16, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

It is not a spelling error, it is a spelling alternative, see e. g. here ("Garuda or Gadura is the sacred bird..."). This spelling alternative is used throughout this whole edition and so it should be kept without any SIC template. Of course, if some other public domain edition using a different spelling is available, its scans can be uploaded and transcribed here as well. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 20:07, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

I understand that if one looks at this book alone or looks specifically for other sources that use the spelling 'Gadura' it appears like these are alternative spellings.

But that is categorically not the case, you could look at the original Sanskrit version at https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D-01-%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5-028 where you will find the word "गरुड" mentioned a couple of times which is simply pronounced as 'ga-ru-da' which is therefore the correct spelling.

But I leave it to you to decide what to do... 103.203.63.35 14:19, 15 August 2024 (UTC)

The point is that we do not seek what is "correct", we always try to be faithful to the original being transcribed. Only for apparent typos we use the SIC template, but if the authors of the edition intentionally decided for some spelling, we do not correct them. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 15:31, 15 August 2024 (UTC)