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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
PREFACE
We feel extremely happy to bring out this first volume of the Revised and Enlarged Edition of Principal V. S. Apte's The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary.'
The first edition of this Dictionary was published in 1890 and in the next three or four decades two other editions, which were only reprints, were out. Prin. Apte's premature death, however, proved to be a great loss to the Sanskritists, Indologists and the student-world of Sanskrit in general all over India and the globe.
From the point of view of utility and ready reference, no other Dictionary had served India and the outside world to the extent to which Prin. Apte's Sanskrit-English Dictionary has served. There are again, other cogent reasons which set Sanskritists in India seriously considering the question of a revised and enlarged edition of this monumental work, which has been, since long, a desideratum. During the last half of a century, a number of new Sanskrit texts have been published. New words from these texts, must at some time or the other, be included in this revised Dictionary. Besides, Prin. Apte, though a veteran and zealous worker, had to labour single-handed, and so he could not include all words from the most important sources like उपनिषद्, रामायण, महाभारत, भागवत, शाबर भाष्य and works on different technical sciences, various lexicons and texts subsequently published. Hence, words from these books and others, for example, the dramas of 1 and the off, which saw the light of the day as late as 1909 and 1912, must necessarily be included in a Sanskrit Dictionary of today.
In this revised edition, we have, as far as possible, taken into consideration all the above, but then unavoidable, short-comings in the old edition and have made substantial additions of new words of different shades of meaning and appropriate quotations from various sources.
Several new vocables from आयुर्वेद, साहित्यशास्त्र, Jain and Buddhist texts are also incorporated in this edition. As suggested by many scholars all over India, we have substituted the method which is grammatically correct in place of the method, used by Prin. Apte. Modern system of diacritical marks also has been adopted herein.
But in adding these new features to Prin. Apte's edition, our main object is only to cater for the needs of Sanskrit readers in general and of the school and college students in particular. One of the special features of this edition is the big Appendix (A), we have added as 'A Concordance of Terms in Sanskrit Grammars'. This work has been compiled by Mm. Prof. K. V. Abhyankar, M. A. (now Honorary Professor, B. O. R. I., Poona), after a close study of more than thirty-two authoritative works on Sanskrit Grammar, like those of ч, a, a, Heft &c., right from the period of fame works upto the present day. The number of entries in this Appendix alone exceeds four thousand and they cover the field of several words of grammatical significance including technical and other terms, names of authors and their works in published or manuscript form.
Another important feature is the treatment of about 475 maxims (s) in another Appendix (B).
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
A Board of Editors was appointed for this edition and the compilation work started some three years ago. The work of revision and addition of this magnitude naturally depends upon the voluntary co-operation of a large number of scholars from all over India and we are glad to note that many Sanskrit scholars of repute, like Dr. Kshitishchandra Chatterji (Calcutta), Prof. Dineshchandra Bhattacharya (Calcutta), Prof. Bhabatosh Bhattacharya (Bhatpara), Prof. Chintaharan Chakravarti (Calcutta), Dr. G. V. Devasthali (Nasik), Dr. A. D. Pusalkar (Bombay), Prof. N. A. Gore (Bombay), Shri. D. G. Padhye (Bombay), Mm. Prof. K. V. Abhyankar (Poona ), Prof. M. D. Sathe (Poona), Dr. V. G. Rahurkar and Dr. G. B. Palsule (Sub-editors, Dictionary Dept., Deccan College, Poona), Prof. Y. R. Agashe (Poona) have till now contributed their quota, incorporated in this work.
We are very grateful to these collaborators and have reserved for being included in the last volume, the expression of our heartfelt thanks to these and other friends, for their specified collaborative and other help. We have also to record our grateful appreciation of the value of the principal works of reference used and consulted in this compilation. The exhaustive list of these works will be given in the last volume. The list of Abbreviations used in this Dictionary has been printed in this volume, but it is not complete. It will be supplemented in the last volume.
We had originally in mind to bring out this lexicon in two volumes of about 800 pages each. But in view of the increase in the bulk of the additions made, a third volume has become necessary.
Poona, 9th August 1957.
Lastly, we must not fail to mention the tremendous burden and responsibility that our publisher has,
at a great sacrifice, dutifully shouldered in bringing out this huge lexicon in print, so nice and neat.
The next volume will be out probably after six months,
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For Private and Personal Use Only
P. K. GODE
C. G. KARVE Chief Editors
