Paper Format Guidelines

Introduction

(1) The paper should give a brief introduction to the question that is being tackled. This entire document contains the formatting standards that have been consistently used across all Swadeshi Indology papers. (2) The title, headings, bibliography etc all have been formatted here in the manner that is expected to be seen in the paper. The paragraph format used here is for the Introduction or the Abstract portion of your paper. The font for the text is Times New Roman (size 12) generally, with justified paragraphs and 1.5 line spacing between lines. (3) However, long quotes, the rest of the document, bibliography – all have slightly different details. The headings (including the title of the paper) are formatted. So, please feel free to use the format painter to copy and paint the format in your paper appropriately. (4) The entire set of points in this document has been numbered (with the numbering highlighted) for the sake of convenience, so that a specific point can be referred to without ambiguity.

First level of Heading (TNR 14pt Bold Blue)

1.      Second level of heading (can be unnumbered too) (TNR 13pt Bold Light Blue)

(5) Make use of inline citation techniques when you are citing from any source.

(6) If you are quoting verbatim, put it within “” and cite (<author> <year>:<page no>) format. E.g: It is claimed that “If the kārikās and vṛtti were from the same hand the breaking up of kārikās and interspersing portions of vṛtti should have been uniform” (Kane 1994:185).

(7) Another way of stating the same would be this:

Kane (1994:185) argues that were the kārikā-s and vṛtti-s “from the same hand” it would actually be reflected in the uniformity of the interspersing of the two.

(8) In the first case, the source has “kārikās and vṛtti” (without due italicization or hyphenation – see points 16 to 21) and they are quoted as they are in the source since they are within “”. However, in the second case, the words have been paraphrased, and hence the conventions listed in this document have been followed with regard to italicization and hyphenation.

(9) Note that the quotation marks are not required if you are paraphrasing the author. However, citing the source is a must. In case, paraphrasing/quoting verbatim is across pages, ensure that the pages are mentioned explicitly. E.g: Kane (1994:185-187).

(10) Also, please ensure that all the works which have been cited inline are included in the Bibliography. How those details are to be presented is handled further on.

(11) In case you are quoting from a long paragraph, leaving out certain details in the middle (which are inconsequential to your case), or beginning your quotation from the middle of a sentence, do not forget to show ellipses, i.e. “…” which indicates that some text has been left out. If this is not represented faithfully, your citation can be construed as a misrepresentation.

(12) Whenever you are quoting a long paragraph, add it in this format, with double indentation and a smaller font, also adding quotes at the beginning and at the end, followed by the citation. Please do not use endnotes for adding citations.[1]

 <Author> (<year>:<pgno>)

On subheadings

(13) It would help sustaining interest and add to readability if many meaningful subheadings are given in the text. This is not a requirement but a value addition. Do try to ensure that there is at least one subheading in each page.

Usage of Sanskrit Words

Diacritical marks

(14) Unless the entire paper is in Sanskrit/Hindi, the papers should have Sanskrit (or any other Indian language quote) in Roman alphabets with proper usage of diacritical marks. For more details on the usage, please check out the Wikipedia page on IAST:

For Sanskrit Words

(15) When you are using non-translatables, such as jñāna etc, always use the base form and not the nominative singular form.

E.g: yogin and not yogī; jñātṛ and not jñātā; Raghuvaṁśa and not Raghuvaṁśaṁ.

Italicization rule:

  • (16) All words and quotes in non-English language are to be italicized.
  • (17) Names of books (in the bibliography too), including works in Sanskrit (e.g. Nyāyāmṛta), are to be italicized.
  • (18) When you are using ‘s’ to show the plural of a Sanskrit word, e.g. śruti-s, italicize the Sanskrit word, and separate the ‘s’ with a hyphen.

Exceptions:

  • (19) Words such as Veda-s, Upaniṣad-s etc are not to be italicized.
  • (20) Name of a person
  • (21) Name of a śāstra such as Nyāya Śāstra, Vyākaraṇa etc

For Sanskrit Sources

(22) For Sanskrit sources, ensure that you quote the chapter and verse correctly and add the edition referred to in the bibliography. Note that there is a special double reference system followed for the bibliographic details of traditional Indian texts.

On Bibliography

(23) Since a good bibliography is of paramount importance for good academic writing, ensure that you collect all details of the works you have referred to. For most of the kinds of works that you might have referred to, you will probably find examples here. However, in case you are in doubt, feel free to contact to get clarifications.

Bibliography

 For books

(24) <last name>, <first name> (<year>) Title of the book (in italics). <Publisher>. <Place of publication>

Kaw, M. K. (2004). Kashmir Education, Culture, and Science Society – Kashmir and Its People: Studies in the Evolution of Kashmiri Society. A.P.H. Publishing Corporation. Jammu and Kashmir.  

For Articles

(25) <last name>, <first name> (<year>). “Title of the Article within quotes”. Name of the Journal in italics. <issue details>. pp293-310. The “pp” mentioned before refers to pages i.e pages xx to yy

Hanneder, J (2002). “On The Death of Sanskrit”. Indo-Iranian Journal. 45. pp293-310.

 For online sources which do not have an acknowledged author

(26) “Title of the article” (Last modified on <date>). http://xxxx. Accessed on <date>.

“Pūrvapaksha of Sheldon Pollock: Misappropriating text from VS Naipaul’s article” (Last modified on 07 May, 2016). http://purvapaksha-pollock.blogspot.in/2016/05/misappropriating-text-from-vs-naipauls.html. Accessed on 10 Oct, 2016.

For online sources which have a specific author

(27) <last name>, <first name> (<last modified date/first version date>). “Title of the Article within quotes”. http://yyyyy. Accessed on <date>.

Gillon, B. (First version on 19 Apr, 2011). “Logic in Classical Indian Philosophy”. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-india/ Accessed on 10 May, 2016.

For Sanskrit texts-double entry

(28) Name of the text. See XYZ (<year>). Here “XYZ” refers to the name of the editor

(29) <last name>, <first name> (Ed.)(<year>). Name of the Book. <Publisher>. <Place>.

Raghuvaṁśa of Kālidāsa. See Kale (1972)

Kale, M R (Ed.) (1972) The Raghuvaṁśa of Kālidāsa. Motilal Banarsidass. New Delhi.

Endnotes


[1] (30) Endnotes are to be used only when you need to add a few points which are not directly related to the central point of discussion but addition of it will help understand the context better. The endnote numbering is not to be in Roman numerals (which seems to be the default).