PREFACE.
The want of a Sanskrit Dictionary has been long and great-ly felt by students of that language who cannot afford to buy the costly and elaborate works prepared by European Scholars, or those who do not possess a knowledge of English sufficient to understand them.
The native Dictionaries called Koshas are defective in two important respects.
(1.) They are written in verse instead of in alphabetical order. This renders reference impracticable and the works are hardly of any use until read throughout.
(2.) Their language is so complicated that it cannot be understood by any but advanced students. For this reason numerous commentators have laboured, not very successfully, to adapt them for the study of beginners. But all these com-mentaries (have been) written in Sanskrit and are therefore of little use to students of the present time.
The late Dr. Colebrooke prepared the Kosha by Amar Singha with a view to facilitate both study and reference. But it had also the same defects which the Dictionaries by other European Scholars have, viz., its English dress and expensiveness. Moreover the work is now very rare.
I have endeavoured in this work to meet the peculiar wants of the modern student. The work I have chosen for my original is Amara Singha's Kosh which is decided to be superior to all other Koshas, and is so popular that others are consulted only when it is "silent or defective." I have tried to adapt it to the requirements of both beginners and advanced students, to the former as a book of study, to the latter as one of reference. It has been prepared on much the same plan as Dr. Colebrooke's admirable Edition of Amar Kosha. Hindus-tance words have been given in the margin for each set of Sanskrit synonyms, and foot notes contain explanations of words, varieties in their forms and quotations from other works on Sanskrit philology. An Alphabetical list of all the words, in the book has been given at the end for the sake of reference. Great care has been taken to make the work so easy as to be understood by a student in an early stage of his learning, without the assistance of a teacher; and the ad-vantages of it have been extended to students whether knowing or not knowing English.
DEVA DATTA TIWAREE,
BAREILLY COLLEGE:)
3rd April, 1875
Head Pundit, Bareilly College.
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