Kosha or Dictionary of the Sanskrit Language

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Preface

The compilation of a Sanskrit Dictionary having been undertaken early after the Institution of the College of Fort William, it was at the same time thought advisable to print, in Sanskrit 'and English, the work which has been chosen for the basis of that compilation; as well for the sake of exhibiting an original authority to which reference will be frequently necessary, as with the view of furnishing an useful vocabulary which might serve until an ampler dictionary could be prepared and published.

The celebrated Umura Kosha, or Vocabulary of Sanskrit by ,UMURA SINGHA, is, by the unanimous suffrage of the learned, the best guide to the acceptations of nouns in Sanskrit. The' work of PANINI on etymology is rivalled by -other grammars, some of which have even obtained the preference in the opinion of the learned of particular provinces: but' UMURA'S vocabulary has prevailed wherever the Sanskrit language is cultivated; and the numerous other vocabularies, which remain, are consulted only where UMURA'S is either silent or defective. It has employed the industry of innumerable commentators, while none of the others (with the single exception of HEMACHANDRA'S ) have been interpreted even by one annotator. Such decided preference for the Umura Kosha, and the consequent frequency of quotations from it,' determined the selection of this as tile basis of ail alphabetical dictionary, and suggested the expediency of also publishing the original text with an English interpretation.

Like other vocabularies of Sanskrit, that of UMURA is in metre; and a considerable degree of knowledge of the language becomes requisite to discriminate the words from their interpretations and to separate them from contiguous terms which affect their initials and finals. On this account, and to adapt the work to the use of the English student, the words, of which the sense is exhibited, are disjoined from their interpretation (which is included between crotchets); and the close of each word is marked by a Italic letter over it, indicating the gender of the noun. Where a letter has been permuted according to the Sanskrit system of orthography, a dot is placed under the line to intimate that a letter is there altered or omitted : and a marginal note is added, exhibiting the radical final of the noun, or its initial, in every instance where either of them is so far disguised by permutation as not to be easily-recognized upon 8, slight knowledge of the rudiments of the language, and of its orthography. An explanation in English is given in the margin, and completed, when necessary, at the foot of the page. The different inter-pretations proposed by the several commentators. and the variations in orthography remarked by them, are also specified in the same place.

According to the original plan of the present publication, the variations :'1 the reading of the text (for which a careful collation has been made of several copies and of numerous commentaries) are noticed only where they affect the interpretation of a word or its orthography, It was not at first intended to insert those differences which are remarked by commentators upon other authority, and not upon the ground of any variation in the text itself. However, the utility of indicating such differences was afterwards thought to counterbalance any inconvenience attending it: and after some progress had been made at the press, this and other additions to the original design were admitted, •which have rendered a supplement necessary to supply missions in the first chapters and complete the work upon an uniform plan.

To avoid too great an increase of the volume, the various readings and interpretations are rather hinted than fully set forth: it has been judged sufficient to state the result, as the' notes would have been too much lengthened, if the ground of ill, disagreement had been everywhere exhibited and explained For the same reason, authorities have not been cited by name.