[XeTeX] problem rendering unicode Devanagari dependent vowel signs and ligatures

[Leo Brouwer]

Greetings,

I'm working on producing a critical edition of a Sanskrit text using
XeLaTex. In the edition, I wan to report cancellation marks in the
manuscript with multiplication signs around the cancelled akshara, e.g. xकx.
This works fine for consonants, but I can't get XeTex to render dependent
vowels without the dotted circle. I've tried inputting it in every possible
combination with a space (U+0020) and/or Zero Width Joiner (U+200D), but
nothing seems to work. Is there any way to make XeTex display a dependent
vowel without the circle?

Secondly, it seems Xetex doesn't render the common ligature त्र्य correctly
for most freely available Devanagari fonts. I can only get shiDeva, Nakula,
& Sahadeva to display it. Sanskrit 2003 has dedicated characters for
ligatures in its Private Use Area, so it's possible (but time-consuming) to
manually input them, but none of the other fonts do. In the attached sample
I've only included the fonts I find most attractive, but all the others
available on the Wazu font
gallery<http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Devanagari.html>
 have the same problem. Ideally, I want to use a font like Surekh or Yogesh
which includes a real bold font. With these 2 fonts I've noticed an
additional problem: if ligatures with a superscribed "r" are preceded by a
dependent vowel "i," the "r" gets moved to the "i." Is it possible to get
these fonts to display correctly, or are they simply unusable in XeTex?

Here's the tex input for my sample:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{fontspec, xunicode, xltxtra}

\usepackage{polyglossia}

\setdefaultlanguage{sanskrit}

\setotherlanguage{english}

\setmainfont{Charis SIL}

\newfontfamily\sanskritfont [Script=Devanagari]{Sanskrit 2003}

\begin{document}

\textenglish{Sanskrit 2003:} स्वातन्त्र्यम्, स्वात\char"E178 म् , त्र्यक्षः,
\char"E11Cक्षः $\times$\char"200D\char"093E$\times$


 \textenglish {AA Nagari Shree L3:}
\fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{AA_NAGARI_SHREE_L3}स्वातन्त्र्यम् , त्र्यक्षः,
$\times$\char"200D\char"093E$\times$


 \textenglish{CDAC-GISTYogesh:}
\fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{CDAC-GISTYogesh}स्वातन्त्र्यम् , त्र्यक्षः,
विसर्गः, $\times$\char"0020\char"093E$\times$


 \textenglish{CDAC-GISTSurekh:}
\fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{CDAC-GISTSurekh}स्वातन्त्र्यम् , त्र्यक्षः,
विसर्गः, $\times$\char"0020\char"200D\char"093E$\times$


 \textenglish{shiDeva:} \fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{shiDeva}स्वातन्त्र्यम्
, त्र्यक्षः, $\times$\char"200D\char"093E$\times$


 \textenglish{Nakula:} \fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{Nakula}स्वातन्त्र्यम् ,
त्र्यक्षः, $\times$\char"200D\char"093E$\times$


 \textenglish{Sahadeva:}
\fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{Sahadeva}स्वातन्त्र्यम् , त्र्यक्षः,
$\times$\char"200D\char"093E$\times$

\end{document}

Thank you for your help,

Leonard Brouwer
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