Beruflich Dokumente
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History of
Sanskrit Lexicography
Chapter III
History of Sanskrit Lexicography
The prime objective of the dictionaries is to give proper and formal words to
use and avoid words that are not acceptable in the society. The dictionaries
give the standard words to use eliminating slang or incorrect words in the
language. It is a very important tool to learn standard language. The
dictionaries therefore records a proper set of words. They are used to check
the meanings, spellings and the pronunciations of the given words.
There are four types of dictionaries, further dived into several sub
types.
They are called general dictionaries as they deal with the common
words of a language. They are more popular and very frequently used
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dictionaries. They are classified according to the purpose, volume and size.
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3.2 Lexicography in Sanskrit
The word Kosha in the meaning of Dictionary was first used by poet
Dandi in his text Kavyadarsha7. The science of lexicography traces its roots
till the Vedic period. Various synonyms used for dictionaries in Sanskrit
were Nighantu, Kosha, Samucchaya, Kaustubha, Manjusha, Chintamani,
Manjari. This suggests the richness of the language. Sanskrit has a great
vocabulary. Words are the treasure of any language and these words are
conveniently stored in dictionaries in different forms and types. This
indicates importance attached to the dictionary in Sanskrit like other
languages.
Further in the 19th century two important works came into existence.
They were Sabdakalpadruma and Vachaspatyam. This tradition is followed
by various modern day dictionaries such as the Sanskrit English Dictionary
by Monier Williams, H.H. Wilson, Waman Shivram Apte to mention a few.
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3.2.2 Development of Classical Sanskrit Dictionaries
9. Nāmamala 900
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20. Abhidhancintamani 1089-1172
22. Namamalika 11 C
32. Paryayasabdaratna 12 C
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65. Visvalocanakosa 1600
72. Jyotisasastranighantu 17 C
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3.3 Types of Dictionaries or Lexicons in Sanskrit
Sanskrit scholars do not treat kosas as dictionaries but they call them
only "Samuchaya or group of words" of words like Nyaya Koshas,
Loukiknyayanjali. The similar concept is also expressed by Patyal (2000-
01) in his article "Sanskrit Lexicography: Retrospect and Prospect" and
opined that Sanskrit lexicography's are slightly different from modern
languages. The lexicographical material was available from Nighantus
(Nirukta) to medival and late Koshas etc. The Nighatus and koshas do not
follow alphabetical system of modern lexicography.
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koshas, glossaries, anekartha, samanarth etc. But it is also possible to group
the dictionaries published as in case of other languages like English i.e.
general, special, subject, translating, abridged, unabridged etc after
evaluating the contents as per the reference material covered in them .
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Sanskrit - Tamil - Pahalvi, Sanskrit - Hindi - Tamil - English and useful for
translators. The Translating Dictionaries are not confined to one language
like monolingual general dictionaries. They deal with words of two or more
languages. Therefore they are also known as inter-lingual dictionaries.
These are the special types of lexicons existing in the language. This
lexicons cater to words which are monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic.
These lexicons are self explanatory. The terms itself gives its meaning.
These types of lexicons are native to Sanskrit language. Many such lexicons
are available in the language as Ekaksharkosha by Purushottamdeva,
Ekakshara, Dyakshara, Traksharakosha by Dandadhinath etc.
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References :
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