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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
3
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
but to a student, especially a beginner, they are very useful, as they supply him with apt illustrations of the senses of words, and enable him to provide himself with a large stock of choice, idiomatic expressions which are so abundant in the language. Another noticeable feature of the Dictionary is that it gives full explanations of the more important technical terms, particularly in Nyaya, Alankara, Vedanta, Grammar and Dramaturgy, with quotations in Sanskrit wherever necessary; eg see the words अनैकान्तिक, अभाव, सामान्य, अप्रस्तुतप्रशंसा, उपमा, रूपक, उपनिषद्, मीमांसा, अध्यारोप, वार्त्तिक, पद, प्रातिपदिक, स्पृष्ट, रस, प्रवेशक, विष्कम्भक, स्थायीभाव &c. In the case of Alankaras I have chiefly drawn upon the Kavyaprakasa, though I have occasionally consulted the Rasagangadhara, Chandraloka and Kuvalayananda. In the explanation of dramatic terms I have usually followed the Sahityadarpana and its translation into English, and have sometimes referred to the Dasarupa. Similarly, striking phrases, some choice expressions and idioms or peculiar combinations of words, have been given under every word where necessary or possible; eg see the words गम्, सेतु, मयूर, हस्त, धा, कृ, दा, बन्धू, &c. Mythological allusions in the case of all important personages have been briefly but clearly explained, so as to give the reader most of the facts connected with them ; eg see अभि, अगस्त्य, इन्द्र, कार्तिकेय, प्रहाद, सावित्री &c. Etymology has generally been given in the case of every important word, except where it was purely fanciful; eg. 800 अजीवनि, अतिथि, अपत्य, पुत्र, जाया,
&c. In doing this I have followed the system of native grammarians who resolve every word into its 'prakriti' and' pratyaya', and the terminations given according to Panini's nomenclature will be explained further on. I have thought it necessary to do so at the suggestion of several friends, and have derived considerable help from the great Vachaspatya which I have usually followed, except where the etymology given therein appeared to me to be purely arbitrary or fanciful. Philological comparisons have been given only where useful and noteworthy. The work also gives information about words which, it is believed, will be very useful, especially to the University student; e. g see the words अप्सरस्, असुर, बेद, मण्डल, मानस, हंस &c. Some of the most common Nyayas or Maxims have been collected under the word for easy reference; . g. see काकतालीयन्याय, दण्डापूपन्याय, स्थालीपुलाकन्याय &c. To add to the usefulness of the Dictionary I have added at the end three Appendices. The first is on Sanskrit Prosody which attempts to give in a clear and intelligible form all the common metres with Definitions, Schemes in Ganas, and Examples. In the preparation of this Appendix I have chiefly drawn upon the two popular works on Prosody, the Vṛittaratnakara and Chhando-Manjari, but some common metres omitted in those works have been added from the illustrations found in the works of Magha, Bharavi, Dandin, Bhatti, Sudraka &c. Colebrooke's Essay on Sanskrit Metres has also given me occasional help. The second Appendix gives the dates, writings &c. of some of the important Sanskrit writers such as Kalidasa, Bhavabbūti, Bana. Here I have selected only those names about which something definitesomething more than mere guesses and surmises-is known, and I have derived some hints from the Introduction to Vallabhadeva's Subhaṣitavali edited by Dr. Peterson and Pandit Durga Prasada, and from Prof. MaxMuller's India what it can teach us', for which my thanks are due to the authors of both the works. The third Appendix gives the most important names in the ancient Geography of India with identifications on the modern map wherever ascertained, and in this part of the work I have to cordially acknowledge the help I have derived from Cunningham's Ancient Geography, but particularly from Mr. Borooah's Essay prefixed to the third volume of his English-Sanskrit Dictionary. I had at first intended to add two alphabetical indexes to the principal events and personages occurring in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, but I have had to abandon the project, as the publication of the Dictionary has already been delayed on account of various causes over which I had no control. In short, I have endeavoured to make the Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary as complete, comprehensive, and encyclopaedic as was possible within the limits of a single compact volume by condensing a very large amount of matter by means of suitable typographical and other arrangements, and I hope it will be found to be a practically useful and reliable guide in the study of the Sanskrit language.
There is one point which will not fail to strike a careful reader of this Dictionary, which is that there is not the same fulness of treatment in the later portion as in the first 300 or 400 pages. After the vowels had been printed off, I found that they covered no less than 364 pages by themselves, and if the remaining letters of the alphabet had been treated with the same fulness the volume would have increased to about 2000 pages, and the publication of the work itself would have been delayed by at least one year more. It is obvious that neither time, nor the cheap price at which the work was offered to subscribers, would have enabled me to carry on the work of compilation on the same scale; and I was, therefore, obliged to endeavour to curtail the matter by occasionally substituting references for quotations without at the same time marring the usefulness of the work, and by abridging explanations of words and the information given about them, while in some cases I have had to keep back, matter originally intended for the volume. I hope, however, that this has not to any great extent affected the practical usefulness of the Dictionary, and I trust that if time and circumstances permit, I shall be in a position to make the second edition much more useful, complete, and comprehensive than the first,
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