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Sanskrit Language Study
system, which must be reconstructed because no grammars describing it exist. "It is only when we contemplate the Grammar of the Vedic Language and when we compare the language with others like Homeric Greek or Avesta, that we can see the framework complete. We then realise that the verbal system preserved in later times and described by Panini is but a broken down remnant of a very elaborate verbal system." (p. 64).
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Vedic Sanskrit
A Practical Vedic Dictionary, by Suryakanta. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Vedic Grammar, by A. A. Macdonell. 1st ed. 1910; reprint Varanasi: Bhartiya Publishing House, 1975.
A Vedic Grammar for Students, by Arthur Anthony Macdonell. London: Oxford University Press, 1916, reprints 1941, etc.; reprints Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1953, etc.
A Vedic Reader for Students, containing thirty hymns of the Rigveda in the original samhita and pada texts, with transliteration, translation, explanatory notes, introduction, vocabulary, by Arthur Anthony Macdonell. 1st ed., Oxford University Press, 1917; reprints Madras: Oxford University Press, 1951, etc.
Suryakanta's Practical Vedic Dictionary comprehensively covers the Vedic Samhitas, basic words of the major Brāhmaṇas, words chosen from the Aranyakas, and some words from the Upanisads and Kalpa Sūtras. Previous Vedic study in the West relied primarily on Sanskrit-German dictionaries: the 7-volume Sanskrit-Wörterbuch of Böhtlingk and Roth, which includes both Vedic and classical Sanskrit, or Grassmann's Wörterbuch Zum Ṛgveda, covering only the Ṛgveda. The Sanskrit-English Dictionary of Monier-Williams, though less complete than the Böhtlingk/Roth, was sometimes utilized. Suryakanta's dictionary is a marked improvement on all of these, in that it deals exclusively with Vedic Sanskrit, and it covers all four Vedas. For each entry it gives Hindi as well as English definitions, usually illustrated by example(s), with reference(s), from the Vedic literature, so that the word's actual use can be seen. The Sanskrit definition given by Sayaṇa in his commentaries is given when
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