Ardhamagadhi kosha Part 1

SR No.: 016013
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ratnachandra Maharaj
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1988
Total Pages: 591
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, English
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 15 MB

Page 54

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.
It was not without a considerable amount of diffidence that I undertook the work of translating into English the Gujarati portion of the Ardha-Māgadhi Dictionary. The original compiler of a work like this has got certain advantages which a more translator cannot be expected to have. The former gives the meanings and explana. tions of words with a thorough grasp of their contextual bearings, while the latter has to depend upon these meanings and explanations without an opportunity to consult the texts on which they are based. One Gujarati word, for instance, might convey a number of different senses and it would be difficult to give the right equivalent for it in English, without knowing the context. Under these circumstances the only course left for me was to consult Mahārāj Shri Ratnachandraji by correspondence and this I have done as far as possible.
Another difficulty was about Jajna religious technical terms in which the Jaina scriptures abound. The little smattering of Jaina religion which I had, was altogether insufficient to answer the purpose of rendering accurately in a foreign tongue the sense conveyed by these technical words. It is true that a number of scholars both Eastern and Western have worked in this field, but the lack of a single comprehensive lexicon made it a matter of great labour, at least at the commencement of my work, to find out the required information lying scattered in various works. Happily for me, however, Mr. Kesharichandji Bhandari, the publisher, of this work placed at my disposal his wide and varied stock of books on Jainism and I have amply and freely availed myself of the information, both in point of manner and mattor, supplied by these works. I have frequently referred to the works of Mrs. Sinclaire, Messrs. Jagmahendralal Jaini, Champatrai Jaini, H. Jacobi, Hoernle, Warren, Gandhi etc, etc.