Sanskrit Dictionaries – General Introduction
The history of Sanskrit dictionary is, perhaps, older than that of the Sanskrit Grammar. It got started with Vedic Concordance named ‘Nighantu’. In reality, instead of being a dictionary, Nighantu is more or less a word. During later period, various dictionaries were compiled but, unfortunately, we have lost their original scripts.
Amara Simha’s ‘Amarakosa’ has been considered to be the oldest and most popular compilation. It is also known as Namalinganusasana. in later period, Halayudha-kosa, Vaijayanti-kosa, Mankha-kosa, Nama-mala and Anekartha-samgraha etc. names are worth mentioning.
Two voluminous dictionaries compiled in the 19th century are – Vacaspatyam and Sabdakalpadruma, which stand apart their modern style and technique, Both the volumes are replete with the quotes from the contemporary literature to explain the words convincingly. These, thus may be called a bridge between the dictionary and the encyclopedia.
In the modern times, Sanskrit English Dictionary of H.H. Wilsonm, W. Monier and Sanskrit Worterbuch of Oto Bohtlingk’s and Sanskrit English Dictionary by Vamana Sivarama Apte are the excellent works in this tradition.
Sabda Kalpadruma: A Comprehensive Sanskrit Dictionary in 5 volumes
Sabda Kalpadruma is a well known Sanskrit lexicon compiled by a few Bengali scholars at the instance of Raja Radhakanta Deb of Bengal. In this book, the words have been analyzed into their base-forms and suffixes, their genders determined and their Sanskrit synonyms noted.
Download Sabda Kalpadrumam
Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5
Vacaspatyam: A Comprehensive Sanskrit Dictionaryin 6 volumes
Vacaspatyam is a Sanskrit Lexicon, of 5442 pages, by Pandit Taranatha Tarkavacaspati, Calcutta. It is very full up to the end of the letter Pa (page 4550), whilst the rest of the alphabet is squeezed into 900 pages! It is said that the Bengal Govt, which largely subsidized the undertaking, ordered it to be curtailed. If that is so, it did a very unwise thing! (Col. GA Jacob in “A Handful Of Popular Maxims Current In Sanskrit Literature”)
Download Vachaspatyam
Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5 Volume 6
I have downloaded the files but files are not opening with Acrobat reader and giving some error.
I checked the links. There is no difficulty at all in opening the files. Make sure that you are using the latest version of adobe acrobat reader. These files have been downloaded by hundreds of people.
atyanta-sundarm-udaara-sukrityametat !!!!!!!!!!!
I find that pages 692 and 693 of vol.2 of sabdakalpadruma are mssing. can you insert them ?
Thank you 4 this worke. Now everybudy can read these dictionarys.
good site
Oh, really wonderful job you have done. In the first volume of Vachaspatya, only 51(In computer 219)pages I can open and not the rest. What is the reason?
Jagannatha,
To check the link, I downloaded and opened the file just now. All pages are opening. May be, there was some problem when you downloaded it and the file got corrupted. Pl download it again. It should be okay.
Jagannatha,
You are right, the file was incomplete. I have replaced it with a complete version of the book. I have also revised the download link.
Thank you for pointing out this deficiency.
Some one is transcripting this most important work in Roman from the Devnagar script… almost V volumes is close to finish.. and its is available shorty to the scholars of Sanskrit Words..
Could you please provide more details of this work – who is working on this and what is the current status?
Regards,
Sayee.
Sayee,
Both the dictionaries were written around 150 years ago by Sanskrit scholars from Bengal. More details about these books and their authors are there inside the book. Please download at least one volume and read the introductions and prefaces.
These are not ongoing projects. I read somewhere that Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (New Delhi) has brought out a CD-ROM of “Sabdakalpadruma”. You may contact them via their website for more details.
I have purchased these two dictionaries few years ago from Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan. I am asking for the details of the transcription work Dr. SK Dwivedi mentioned above.
Regards,
Sayee.
Sayee,
I have forwarded your comment to Dr Dwivediji.
This is Very helpfull.
Legibility is poor probably because it is an old publication
Subramanian,
I agree with you. These rare books were published first almost 100 years back and what we have on here is their scan made available by Digital Library of India. I have read that these books were recently re-published by Rasthriya Sanskrit Sansthan. I have not seen them; I heard from a friend that they have used the old typesetting – may be considering the difficulty of typesetting and proof-reading thousands of pages.
Respected Subramanian Sir, I am very much glad in getting your kind reply. I am a lover of our very ancient literature. I request to you to kindly arrange and make it Convenient forme to get all the six volumes Of VAchaspathyam by downloading through Snooks PDF files of iPad free of cost !!! Thank you,
why don’t you allow us to read your dictionary!
Kashish Gidwani,
I am not able to understand your question. All the books (5 volumes of Sabda Kalpadruma & 6 volumes of Vachaspatyam) mentioned in the post are available for download. I think you did not notice the download links. Please look for the download links and click on them to download the dictionaries. Also, please write to me in case you come across any difficulty.
Appriciable attempt in favour of Sankrit Seva..
संस्कृति एवं संस्कृत की उत्तम सेवा के लिए धन्यवाद…
Your service to sanskrit is very great.Congratulations.
Thank you very much. I have been waiting for “Vaachaspatyam” -all volumes. I got here
ok goodluck
sampath kumar Medavarapu
Sampathji,
I am glad that you visited my blog and were benefited by my humble efforts. I have visited your folder at scribd.com and also downloaded some rare books from there.
thanks alot for your precious services
Respected sir,
kindly suggest me some good books on initial learning of sanskrit language,thanks
regards
Thanks for Shabdakalpadruma
Sir,
Namaste.May the lord bestow you all with health,peace and glory as these are sustained efforts whose worth would be realized not just by reading but by AbhyAsA with Bhakthi.The soul is self luminous as it is, but few of us realize in our precious lives.These would be the cornerstone on which we would leave indriyAs behind and attain NirvAnA.”JantUnAm Narajanma Durlabham”.SarveshAm Mangalam Bhavathu.
Om Sri Hari
Can post all CBSE Sanskrit Books here .
Gopal Sharmaji,
We cannot post them without permission from CBSE Board. It is not an easy task. The goal of this blog is to make available Sanskrit books in public domain. It is good to focus on that.