Book Description

The present Dictionary is designed to meet the long-felt need of the English-knowing reader who is interested in the study of classical as well as modern Sanskrit. It covers a very large field-Epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Puranas and Upapuranas, Smrti and Niti literature, Darsanas or Systems of Philosophy, such as Nyaya, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Sankhya and Yoga, Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry in all its branches, Dramatic and Narrative Literature, Mathematics, Medicine, Botany, Astronomy, Music and other technical or scientific branches of learning. Thus, it embraces all words occurring in the general post -Vedic literature. It includes most of the important terms in Grammar. It gives quotations and references to the peculiar and remarkable meanings of words, especially such as occur in books prescribed for study in the Indian and foreign universities. It also renders an explanation of important technical terms occurring in different branches of Sanskrit learning. To add to its usefulness the work includes three appendices. There are in existence no doubt excellent Sanskrit-English dictionaries compiled by eminent scholars like Monier Williams, H.H. Wilson, V. S. Apte and L. R. Vaidya, but their bulkiness and cost prohibit a large number of users from enjoying an advantage so necessary in their study of Sanskrit. There is, therefore, a crying need for one which supplies everything required by an average reader and which is at the same time characterized by brevity and cheapness. The present compilation is intended to serve this purpose. The author in this handy work has kept out Sanskrit words that are less commonly used and has tried to avoid all technicalities as well as words that can easily be seen as simple derivatives of some given words. Thus he has been able to reduce the bulk of the dictionary without compromising its usefulness.