It is a pleasant news that the first volume of "The Modern Bengali Dictionary for Non-Bengali Readers' has come out from the press after a little delay for some unavoidable circumstances. A few years back the late Professor Sukumar Sen had advised the authorities of the Asiatic Society to publish an exhaustive bilingual Bengali Dictionary (Beng. Eng.) for the benefit of non-Bengali as well as foreign readers. The Editor, along with Junior Research Fellows, has prepared the first volume which contains about 5,000 words with Bengali initial vowels. It is presumed that the Project would be complete in six volumes with about 75,000 words. Any reader will be able to find out pronunciation, sources of words, different shades of meaning, grammar, usages, proverbs, phrase-idioms and citations collected from classical and modern Bengali literature. Some information on the Bengali personalities have also been incorporated in it so that the readers from other language-groups would feel attracted towards Bengali culture. I hope this lexicography will also help the Bengali readers to know their language more intently.
In this connection I am glad to convey my heartiest thanks to Professor Asit Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Editor of this Project and his associates for undertaking such a stupendous task.
At the outset some readers may raise a question: What is the utility and relevance of this Dictionary? There are many Bengali dictionaries, monolingual (Bengali to Bengali), bilingual (Bengali to English and vice versa), even trilingual (Sanskrit - English - Bengali) current in Bengali-reading public. Then what is the necessity of add- ing another? The reason for compiling a Bengali bilingual dictio- nary is this that non-Bengali learners, including foreigners, face some difficulty in mastering the language from the usual Bengali dictio- naries which are mainly meant for Bengali readers. The present vol- ume of The Modern Bengali Dictionary for Non-Bengali Readers was mooted by the late Professor Sukumar Sen, the eminent linguist of our country, with a view to reduce the inconvenience of those readers whose vernacular is not Bengali. According to his advice and instruction the present Dictionary Project was started some years ago by the authorities of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. It was decided to publish a bilingual (Bengali to English) dictionary in six volumes stressing on the needs of non-Bengali readers. Hence, in this Dictio- nary unnecessary details, archaic usages, antiquated vocabularies and lexicographical complexities have been restricted to some extent.
There is another question which intrigues us and which is related to our enquiry. Was there no Bengali dictionary in early and medi- eval Bengal? The answer is in the negative. No specimen of Bengali dictionary has been found, dating before the beginning of the 18th century. But the study of Sanskrit grammar and the use of dictio- naries were practised in Eastern India from the late Maurya Period (c. 321 BC-232 BC) to the early Gupta Period (c. 319 AD-467 AD). During the reign of the Palas (c. 750 AD - 1155 AD) and Sena kings (c. 1125 AD 1202 AD), Sanskrit grammar and dictionaries were in great demand within the priestly community and also in the society of scholars. To master a language a dictionary or a familiarity with ita vocabulary is indispensable. Among the lexicons, Amarakosa (Námalingánusasana'), compiled by Amarasinha, was very popu lar in Bengal in the tenth and subsequent centuries, even till the modern time. Bengal was known to be the seat of Sanskrit learning from the 5th century AD, if not earlier.
The Chinese pilgrims-Fa-Hien (c. 401 AD-410 AD), Hiuen Tsang (c. 600 AD- 604 AD) and Itsing (c. 675 AD) learnt Sanskrit literature, Indian Philosophy and Labda vidya (grammar and dictionary) while staying at Tamralipti (modern Tamluk in the district of Medinipur, West Bengal), Hence it may be easily surmised that Radha country was a centre of Sanskrit learning from the 5th century of the Christian era. This tradition continued and gained momentum in early and medieval periods as is evident from the study of Sanskrit epics (the Rimijana and the Mahabharata), Puranas, Smrtidástras, grammar and lexicographies. But we do not find any trace of Bengali dictionaries before the 18th century. Bengali literature, however, began to de- velop from the 10th century (literary specimen as recorded in Carya gitikoga)2 to the middle of the 18th century (Bharatchandra Raygunakar, 1712 1760); but no trace of Bengali dictionary and grammar could be found between the 10th and the 12th century. Perhaps there were rigorous methods of imparting Sanskrit knowl- edge in tols and cat-uppathi conducted by Sanskrit scholars and pandits. Young boys used to obtain a rudimentary knowledge of San- skrit from those private institutions. But how could these young learn- ers acquire some knowledge of Bengali? The learning of the ver- nacular was a private and domestic affair, which could be managed from the village pedagogues. But no documentary evidence has been found as yet. It may sound very curious that a full-fledged language like Bengali, which is about one thousand years old, having a long well-developed literary history, reveals no written evidence of any Bengali dictionary and grammar in ancient and medieval Bengal (10th-18th century). But there are a few examples of Bengali words in Tikásarvasua, a commentary of Amarakosa, made by Vandyaghatiya Sarvananda in 1159 AD. About three hundred Bengali words, which were coined by him, are used even today. There is another reference to Bengali words in Ratnávali or Desina mamála, prepared by Hemachandra Suri (1088-1172). Though it is a Marathi dictionary, curiously enough, it contains some Bengali words also.
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