The Sanskrit Dictionary Project is a large-scale undertaking that demonstrates the tenacity and academic dedication of intellectuals over a seventy-six-year period. This language journey began in the year that India was freed from British domination.
The national Sanskrit University (CSU) in Delhi last month became an ally of the project, which was hatched at the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute in Pune and received assistance from the national government. The two institutes signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that emphasised resource sharing to strengthen the initiative and cooperative efforts to provide Sanskrit courses.
Vice-chancellor of CSU Prof. Shrinivasa Varakhedi stated that a lack of funding has prevented the institute from taking on more projects. We have recommenced our work on new initiatives with the ministry of education’s assistance. I was made aware of the Sanskrit Dictionary project’s work a year ago. In addition to providing funding, we will work together on human resources,” he declared.
Project evaluation
Sanskrit to English is an encyclopaedic dictionary with 2.2 million words and an astounding 10 million references spread over 35 volumes and 6056 pages released thus far.
The initiative is special because it aims to exhaust the entire spectrum of the Sanskrit language, according to Ganesh Devy, a linguist best recognised for his work on the People’s Linguistic Survey of India. “You can use this dictionary to learn about the actual history of the ancient world and the connections between the Indian subcontinent and central and western Asia. More significantly, Devy stated, “we will be able to appropriately interpret various ancient learnings.”
The project was first started in 1948. SM Katre, the former director of the Deccan college and professor of Indo-European philology, was the one who conceptualised and planned it. The goal was to translate Sanskrit into English. After attending the Wilson Philological lectures in the UK, he learned that there were dictionaries for other languages but none for Sanskrit, which inspired him to start the project.
The dictionary project, which has involved more than three generations of lexicographers, has become a legacy as editors carry on the work. According to the institute, the Sanskrit Dictionary is larger than the well-known Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which has 3.5 million quotations and 0.5 million entries spanning a millennium of language history.
Noted scholar, historian, writer, and Indologist Arthur Llewellyn Basham claimed in his book “The Wonder That Was India” that this “dictionary, upon completion, would stand as the greatest work of Sanskrit Lexicography ever witnessed worldwide.” Legendary teachers like Romila Thapar and Ram Sharan Sharma were trained by Basham, who died in 1986.
Latin and Greek dictionaries are available. However, there are none for Sanskrit that cover the language’s history and evolution; by history, we mean the earliest known work of literature, whether it be written or oral. The Rigveda is the earliest textual evidence of Sanskrit that is currently accessible, according to Prasad Joshi, general editor of the Sanskrit Dictionary Project since 2017 and professor at Deccan College.
Play with the language
The dictionary focuses on how words have evolved over time, both in terms of their forms and meaning. They are rationally evaluated and connected to a variety of subtleties and colours. Because of its encyclopaedic nature, the dictionary offers details on vocable forms as a guide, word functions within speech segments, accents, etymologies, derivations, and Indo-Aryan evolution.
It was not a simple task.
We gather references to words once they have been identified. Before approving the entries, the scholars research the meaning and context. Before being sent for publication, it is reviewed, revised, and double-checked, according to Joshi. It is based on a main body of work that includes over 1500 Sanskrit treatises from 1400 BC to 1850 AD.
“We faced serious challenges when I came onboard,” said retired professor Jayashree Sathe, who served as the project’s general editor from 2010 to 2017. “Research scholars appointed for posts created by the central government retired, leaving us with a paltry support staff.” There were about 38 to 40 research researchers working there when I began in 1985, and when I took over as editor, our staff numbered only 13 or 14. There was always the worry that the department will close because of a labour shortage.
Three years after the editing process started, in 1976, the first book was released, marking the culmination of her labours. It could take almost a century to finish the project, she continued, since a group of about 20 linguists and Sanskrit specialists are working on it.
The dictionary is divided into 62 branches, including epics, dharmaśāstra, darśana, Vedas, and historical lexicons. It also covers disciplines with a scientific foundation, such as mathematics, architecture, alchemy, agriculture, medicine, and veterinary sciences, as well as literature, poetics, dramaturgy, prosody, and anthologies. It also contains words related to economy, music, inscriptions, war, and indoor activities.
Regarding the project’s future, Joshi stated, “The first phase of data compilation is finished, and the second phase of upgrading has begun. This phase should be finished in ten years.” More workers will speed up the editing process, allowing us to publish more volumes in a given year.
Concurrently, acknowledging the necessity of a digital record, CDAC has been engaged to lead the process of digitising the pieces. “Young people aren’t seen visiting libraries to amass books. Therefore, we will make the dictionary accessible online to users everywhere. We plan to develop mobile applications as well,” added Joshi.
Because of the volume of data, it is a valuable tool for many different subjects, including philology, history, computational linguistics, linguistics, and patents.
“It is unique in that it is definitive and comprehensive,” stated Devy.