"Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly, or it vanishes": 'Encyclopedia in Sanskrit ' to be World’s Biggest Dictionary with over 10 million refs collected from 1500 Sanskrit books including Vedas, Darshana, Polity, Maths, and more

Language is the cradle on which civilization grows. Without language, people would not interact on friendly terms, leading to an increase in violent conflicts. Any country wishing to protect its civilizational ethos must begin by doing so with its language. That is why creating a dictionary of Sanskrit holds significant importance for India.

Deep research on the Sanskrit lexicon

In 1948, the department of Sanskrit and Lexicography, Deccan College, Pune, started a project called ‘An encyclopedic dictionary of Sanskrit’. Dr. Sumitra Mangesh Katre, a renowned Indologist, and linguist was the leader of the project.  Dr. Sumitra also served as the first General editor of the dictionary. Later, Prof. AM Ghatge took on the baton from him.

For the first 25 years of the project, Sanskrit textbooks available in India were hunted. Pandits, shastris, and scholars brainstormed over nearly 1,500 Sanskrit literatures. The domain of these textbooks is spread over 62 knowledge disciplines such as Vedas, Darśana, Sahitya, Dharmaśāstra, Vedānga, Vyakarana, Tantra, Epics, Mathematics, Architecture, Alchemy, Medicine, Veterinary Science, Agriculture, Music, Inscriptions, In-door games, warfare, polity and anthology among others. These textbooks were written in a wide time frame, from the Vedic period to Hāsyārṇava (1850 AD).

Clarity about the historical development

Due diligence was followed before publishing the dictionary. In 1976, the first volume of the dictionary was published. The dictionary contains words in alphabetical order. Historic precedents are followed in describing the meaning. Not only does it describe the meaning, but it also provides additional information, references, and context of the respective word. Due care has been taken to arrange words according to the chronological order of their reference in the text.

Any word beginning with a particular letter contains all the citations present in Sanskrit texts. These citations can be as old as thousands of years old and can be as young as a text published 170 years ago. By tracking the development of the meaning of the word across epochs, a learner can understand how language was shaped by the social, cultural, and moral systems of the time.

Sarika Mishra, an Editorial assistant on the project, said, “Sometimes, a word can have anywhere between 20 to 25 meanings as it varies depending on the context of use and books. Once the maximum possible meanings are found, the first draft, called an article, is published. This is then proofread and sent to the General Editor for his first review. Upon finalizing, the article of one word is readied and sent to the press. It is once again proofread by the scholars and the General Editor before it is finalized as a dictionary entry.”

Better than Oxford

Up until now, 35 volumes of the coveted dictionary have been published. The process has largely been helped by an exclusive software with a font named KoshaSHRI. 1.25 lakh vocables have been subsumed in these volumes. Apparently, the Sanskrit alphabet ‘अ ‘ has given birth to the highest number of these words. 6,056 pages of the words in the Dictionary start with this particular alphabet only. By the end, of the project will finish, it is expected that it will contain a total vocabulary of 20 lakh words.

For context, the Oxford English Dictionary has 20 volumes and 2,91,500-words entries so far. Given the fact that the Sanskrit language contains 46 letters, 20 more than the number of alphabets in the English dictionary, it won’t be a surprise if the number surpasses more than 20 lakh words.

Example of human endurance

The process was really a painstaking one. These scholars generated a reference slip for each and every small detail. These slips contain the book title, the context of the word, grammatical category, citation, commentary, reference, exact abbreviation, and date of the text. These references have been signed by their creator and have been kept in 3,057 specially designed metal drawers. Around 20 million slips are there and these drawers are now open for the public to see.

The project is a prime example of how human endurance can achieve everything. India has a history of such miracles. The very fact that Nalanda University kept burning for six months is an example of how much effort was put into building it. Let us hope the digitization process of this encyclopedia is not subject to censorship by the big tech.

Pune: Rare opportunity to view world’s largest Sanskrit encyclopedia

Pune, 25th September 2022: An Open Day program of ‘An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles’ was organized on Saturday, 24th September 2022, by the Department of Sanskrit and Lexicography of Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute (Deemed University), Pune.

This program was a golden opportunity for the students, teachers, researchers, and the public to witness the expanse of this huge Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit and to understand the working of such a unique project. The program received an overwhelming response of more than 700 registrations and many on-the-spot registrations. People were amazed to see the working of such a monumental Dictionary.

The program was inaugurated by Prof. Pramod Pandey, Vice-Chancellor, and Prof. Prasad Joshi, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Deccan College ( Deemed University). On this occasion, Dr Pandey said that with the emphasis and encouragement of Sanskrit in the New Education Policy, this Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit plays a significant role, and it needs to be used by people.

This Open Day program was aimed to introduce this unique Encyclopaedia of Sanskrit to the common public and to demonstrate and promote India’s intellectual heritage hidden in Sanskrit Literature, said Dr Prasad Joshi while welcoming all the visitors.

This Open Day program was organized for the first time after many years to make people aware of such an extraordinary project. An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit is the world’s biggest Dictionary which is an ongoing project at the Department of Sanskrit and Lexicography at Deccan College. Shaped by the vision of Dr Sumitra Katre, a renowned Linguist and Sanskritist, this Dictionary consists of references from 62 knowledge disciplines encoded in the Sanskrit language. From 1943 to 1973, Sanskrit scholars and Shastris from the country extracted millions of words spread over 1500 Sanskrit books. Over 10 million references containing these words from the texts of Vedas, Vedanta, Darsana, Polity, Mathematics, Agriculture, Chemistry, Architecture, Dramaturgy, and many others were collected and stored in the form of slips in the Scriptorium, one of such kind in the country and the world. The participants got a golden opportunity to see the Scriptorium and various slips stored therein.

In 1976, under the editorship of Dr A. M. Ghatge, a distinguished linguist, the first volume of this monumental dictionary was published. So far, 35 volumes of this dictionary spread across 6,000 pages have been published, and the 36th volume is under publication.

Visitors also visited the editorial hall and witnessed the process of dictionary making, the steps involved in the meaning analysis of various words, and the library. On this occasion, all the 35 volumes of this dictionary, along with the other books published by the Department of Sanskrit and Lexicography, were made available to purchase.

Dr Bhav Sharma, the Secretary of the Encyclopaedic Dictionary, conveyed that the dictionary will soon be made available online, and a special website for the Dictionary will be launched soon.

The response from Pune, Sangamner, Satara, Solapur, Mumbai, and Nashik showed love, respect, and curiosity about Sanskrit among the people, said Sanhita Joshi, the Coordinator of the program. The program received positive feedback from visitors from all fields, such as students, teachers, engineers, businessmen, housewives, and others. The program was a success due to the collective efforts of all the Staff of the Dictionary, said Prof. Joshi, who is also the General Editor(I/c) of the Dictionary.

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