The `Giant Dictionary` Introduces Words From Ancient Language

Encyclopedic Dictionary Of Sanskrit Will Be World’s Biggest Dictionary

The 200-year-old Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Maharashtra’s Pune city hosted an Open Day for the general public to witness its ongoing encyclopedia of Sanskrit dictionary project. The Open Day is aimed at introducing the huge and distinct encyclopedia of Sanskrit to the visitors, demonstrating and promoting India’s intellectual heritage hidden in Sanskrit literature. The scriptorium is the hub of a gigantic literary project that has been ongoing since 1948 — and the likely date of whose completion remains uncertain. But whenever that happens, the completed project is expected to contain about 20 lakh words,and become perhaps the largest dictionary in any language. Led by researchers from the Department of Sanskrit and Lexicography at the college, the encyclopedic dictionary of Sanskrit will be the world’s biggest dictionary.

Open Day Programme on Sanskrit                                           

The ‘open day’ programme comprised a one-hour tour of ‘an encyclopaedic dictionary of Sanskrit’ along with a visit to the scriptorium and editorial hall. The programme aims to introduce this huge and distinct encyclopedia of Sanskrit to visitors, and demonstrate and promote India’s intellectual heritage hidden in Sanskrit literature. The purpose of holding an "open day" is to inform the public about the enormous project that is producing the largest dictionary in history, to familiarise them with India's intellectual past, and to help them comprehend the processes involved in creating dictionaries.

Sanskrit Dictionary Project

The project was conceived by the linguist and Sanskritist Prof S M 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, and the project was subsequently taken forward by Prof A M Ghatage. This endeavour, which began in 1948, has resulted in the publication of 35 volumes. This dictionary chronicles the linguistic development of the language from the Rigveda to Hasyarnava by using references from 62 knowledge disciplines that have been recreated in Sanskrit (1850 AD). Since the beginning of the enormous effort, Sanskrit experts have been tracking phonetic changes and semantic growth of words. More than 1,500 Sanskrit publications in fields including politics, mathematics, agriculture, chemistry, architecture, dramaturgy, and more have amassed over 10 million references. These were gathered and kept in the college's scriptorium, the only one of its sort in the world, in the form of slips that were safely preserved. Each slip, which comes in pink or green and a variety of sizes, contains details on the precise vocable, the grammatical category, and a citation to support the vocable.

Historical Development of The Meaning of Sanskrit’s Each Word 

It took 25 years for these Scholars to complete the word extraction process from the 1,464 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 3,057specially designed metal drawers in the scriptorium, literally the soul of the dictionary. All these slips have now been digitised as well. The current torchbearers of the project are 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. While this dictionary contains words in alphabetical order, their various meanings are arranged in their historical contexts. In addition to the meaning, the dictionary also provides additional information, references, and the context of use in a particular work of literature. This is the reason why the dictionary is encyclopaedic, with words arranged in chronological order their appearance in the texts. This helps the reader to understand the historical development of the meaning of each word.

Publishing of Volumes of Sanskrit Dictionary                                                    

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 6,056 pages of words beginning with the first letter. Improvementintechnologyandtheuse of a specialised software with a font named KoshaSHRI have quickened the process in recent years. We are now able to publish a volume in a little over a year. Approximately 4,000 words are incorporated in a volume. The digitisation of the 1,464 books over the years has made them readable by the software,and made it easier to address any missing information.

The Purpose of Sanskrit                                                    

Even though it is not widely spoken, Sanskrit is regarded as one of the most sacred and ancient languages in the world. The purpose of World Sanskrit Day is to raise awareness of the language and encourage others to learn it. A large part of the population in India, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab speaks and understands Urdu, but only 2,4821 people in the country speak Sanskrit. The historical-based English language dictionary, which took over a century to finish, might come close. But the Sanskrit dictionary has a wider scope than any other language in the world and has such a rich and vast reservoir of words. When complete, the Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary will be bigger than the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dutch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, two of the world's well known big dictionaries. Overall, language studies have remained on the back foot. We need readers for the vast volumes of scriptures and literary works that are still lying unread.