GIANT DICTIONARY OF SANSKRIT

 Source: indianexpress

CONTEXT

The prestigious Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary at Pune‘s Deccan College Post–Graduate and Research Institute was opened after a long time for students and the general public.

ABOUT PROJECT

• The Project was conceived by the linguistic and sanskritist Professor SM Katre, the founder of India's oldest Department of Modern Linguistics in Deccan College, in 1948
• Katre served as the first general editor of the dictionary
• The project was subsequently taken forward by Professor AM Ghatage
• Between 1948 and 1973 around 40 scholars read through 1,464 books in Sanskrit across 62 knowledge disciplines stretching from the Rig-Veda (1400BC)to the Hasyarnava (ocean of Mirth,1850 A.D), in search of words that could be added to the dictionary
• The text covered the Vedas, Darsana, Sahitya, Dharmasastras, Vedanga, Vyakarana, Tantra, and the epics
• There were also texts of mathematics ,architecture ,alchemy ,medicine ,veterinary science ,agriculture ,music ,inscriptions ,indoor games ,warfare ,polity and anthologies ,besides subject-specific dictionaries and lexicons
• It took 25 years for these scholars to complete the word extraction process from the 1464 books that they referred to and to generate 1 crore reference slips
• Each one of these paper slips has been preserved, arranged alphabetically in more than 3,057 specially designed metal drawers in the scriptorium, literally the soul of the dictionary. All these slips have now been digitized as well
• Currently, the project is having a team of 22 teachers and researchers of Sanskrit, who are now working towards publishing the 36th volume of the dictionary, consisting of the first letter of the alphabet.

 ORDER OF DICTIONARY

• While this dictionary contains words in alphabetical order, their meanings are arranged in their historical contexts.
• The dictionary also provides additional information, references, and the context of use in a particular work of literature
• The words are arranged in the chronological order of their appearance in the texts. This helps the reader to understand the historical development of the meaning of each word.

KoshaSHRI

• KoshaSHRI, it is specialized software that has quickened the process in recent years
• With this volumes are published within a year.
• The digitization of the 1,464 books over the years has made them readable by the software and made it easier to address any missing information.

VOLUMES PUBLISHED SO FAR

• It took three years for the first volume to be published in 1976
• Another 34 volumes of the dictionary have since been published, containing a total of 6,056 pages of words beginning with the first letter.

KEY TERMS

1. Rig-Veda is known as the oldest religious text in the world. It was composed around 1700 BC. The last hymns were composed between 1500-1200 BC. It's a collection of hymns by several priest families. It is organized into 10 books which are called Mandalas. The first and 10^th Mandalas are the youngest and the longest books.  Second, to Seventh Mandalas are the oldest parts of Rig-Veda but the shortest books The Rig-Veda contains 1017 (1028, including 11 hymns of the Valakhilya recession) hymns (Sukta) and is divided into ten mandalas. The first and the tenth Mandalas are said to have been added later.
2. Vedangas are six auxiliary disciplines associated with the study and understanding of the Vedas. They are as follows:
3. Shiksha - the study of phonology, phonetics, and pronunciation. This focuses on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, as well as the way that words are combined and expressed in a Vedic recitation.
4. Chhandas - the study of prosody, which looks at the poetic meter. This incorporates analyzing the number of syllables per verse, and any fixed patterns within them.
5. Vyarkarana - the analysis of grammar and linguistics, to establish the precise way in which words and sentences were constructed to express ideas.
6. Nirukta - the study of etymology, particularly concerning explaining the meaning of archaic words.
7. Kalpa - the focus on ritual instructions. This field looks at procedures described for rites of passage, weddings, births, and other rituals associated with life events. It also explores concepts of individual duty and proper conduct.
8. Jyotisha - the study of auspicious times, which draws on the Vedic practice of using astrology and astronomy to guide rituals and timekeeping.

Hasyarnava Prahasanam

Jagadesvara Bhattacharya’s Hasyarnava Prahasanam makes the 14th century play

It is a political satire in Sanskrit, the medieval Sanskrit comedy Hasyarnava-Prahasanam (The Ocean of Mirth) sets the tone for a riotous satire. Its outlandish humour punctures social norms, undermines hierarchies and lampoons religious strictures.