Classical Buddhist Dictionary & Thesaurus (Set of 2 Volumes)

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Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita is Founder and President of the Maha Bodhi Society in Bangalore, India. In 1956, he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Sixth Buddhist Synod in Rangoon, which brought out a complete edition of the Pali Canon, Since then, he has written numerous books and translations of Buddhist texts, which have been published in many countries. Best known is his classic English rendering of the Dhammapada. He also edits and publishes a monthly magazine, Dhamma.

An internationally recognized meditation master, he has lived and taught abroad, and founded the Buddhist Meditation Society in the United States. He has also taught Buddhology at the Nalanda Pali Post-graduate Institute. Bihar University. Firmly committed to putting Buddhist principles into practice, he has achieved distinction for multi- faceted humanitarian activities in his native India

Abhidhānappadīpikā herein entitled the Classical Buddhist Dictionary and Thesaurus, is the oldest extant Pāli lexicon of great authority analogous to Amarakosha in Sanskrit literature. It was complied by the distinguished monk-scholar and savant Venerable Acharya Moggallāna of Sri Lanka. He lived in 11 A.D. residing at Jetavana monastery in the then capital city of Polonnaruwa, during the reign of Parakkrama Bāhu, one of the greatest Sinhalese monarchs.

The king took personal interest in the production of this work out of his great respect for the Venerable Acharya. Even today in different Buddhist countries, such as, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, this book is the standard reference work for all students of Buddhism, Pāli language and literature. Complied in verses, this work is a feat of great literary accomplishment, rare in lexicography. Writing in poetry on various topics in a given field of knowledge, has been fairly common in Pāli literature, through these twenty six centuries, since the advent of the Buddha. But compiling a dictionary including synonyms and antonyms in metric form is indeed rare, therefore, very commendable.

To make the present edition easier for students of Pāli, it has been rendered in modern lexicon style. First, each verse is rendered into free style English prose. Then each word of the verse is individually translated in the form of modern dictionary and thesaurus for clear and easy understanding. There are one thousand two hundred and three verses with more then fifteen thousand words.