Bhagwad Gita Vivechanatmak Shabdakosh

Author(s): Prahlad C Divanji
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd

Page 12

Critical Word-Index to the Bhagavad gitā
cal arrangement such as the one which I had suggested in my paper on a Thesaurus Linguae Sanskritae. At a glance one finds the entire material before one-self, analysed and presented under the proper alphabetical order and the relevant section depending upon the position of the word-unit in the compound expression. Not only is it an Index-Verborum it is also a complete dictionary of the Gitā for which critical material has been drawn from collations of several editions, giving the variae lectiones as far as they are available to scholars in printed editions and in the testimonies, in published commentaries of this work from the Bhāsya of Sankara downwards. The learned compiler of this work has, besides, utilised most of the published critical studies on the text of the Bhagdad gitā. Thus, in a sense, this work represents the critical summation and evaluation of all the critical material on the text and interpretation of the Gītā that is so far available, presented in a very originai manner
The Gitā has a distinct place in the life of the nation; witness, for example, its great moving force on three unique Indian personalities of the present centuries, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Lokmanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. The voice of Sri Krsna is still reverberating through the corridors of time and is powerful enough to change the destiny of men, bringing the light of the spirit and the transcendent knowledge to guide the future of mankind. The fiery words can still move inert nature to a final endeavour in the up-rooting of the evil that exists in man. But cold analysis is required to dissect them into their proper components, for modern research requires a critical text devoid of conscious or unconscious emendations, changes, interpolations, etc. and a tool, not depending upon subjective judgment, for the final sifting of the material and sense. In this manner of speaking, the present attempt is unique in its character, and will enable the linguistician, the comparative philosopher or a critical student of the text of the Gitā, to arrive at his goal with the least amount of trouble. The material has been so well presented that the 'Gitā may now very well become its own interpreter, with no external aids.
In conclusion all true scholars have to express their admiration for the patient and critical manner in which Rao Bahadur Divanji has digested his material and presented the same in a scientific manner, satisfying the highest exacting demands of modern scholarship.
Deccan College Post-Graduate ) and Research Institute, Poona,
Dated 4th June 1943.
S. M. KATRE.
1. NIA, IV. pp. 271-84.