A Note on the Transliteration of Sanskrit and Tamil Words
Sanskrit words are transliterated according to the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) system, commonly used by Indologists. For the transliteration of Tamil words, I follow the romanization scheme approved by the American Library Association and the Library of Congress (ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Tamil).
I typically use the Sanskrit forms for Sanskrit words integrated into Tamil and adapted to its phonology. These forms are more familiar to a broader readership than the Tamil transliterations, which are generally recognizable only to specialists. This pragmatic approach occasionally results in hybrid forms that blend Tamil and Sanskrit for names for temples and pillared halls or maá¹á¸apas. Thus, I write NÄá¹umpÅ«nÄthasvÄmi temple instead of NÄá¹umpÅ«nÄtacuvÄmi (Tamil) temple, or Putu Maá¹á¸apa instead of Putu Maá¹á¹apa (Tamil). I often omit the honorific letter â-râ at the end of names derived from Sanskrit, writing Aruá¹agirinÄtha instead of Aruá¹akirinÄtar (Tamil), but retain the letter â-râ in the case of Tamil and hybrid forms, such as MuttutÄá¹á¸avar. However, I use PurÄá¹am for Tamil texts and PurÄá¹a for Sanskrit works.
Various spellings of Tamil names for temples and places are encountered, and multiple spellings of the same name can appear even within a single publication. To assist readers, I have included an appendix listing some alternative spellings.
Occasionally, I adopt the better-known anglicized forms of city names. Thus, I write New Delhi instead of NaÄ« DillÄ« (Hindi), Thanjavur instead of TañcÄvÅ«r (Tamil), and Madurai instead of Maturai (Tamil). For proper names, I accept the forms used by the authors. However, some inconsistencies in the transliteration are unavoidable.