Guv to release Pali-Hindi dictionary today

by Pranava K Chaudhary, TNN, Friday, November 13, 2009

(PATNA, Bihar) Nav Nalanda Mahavihara (NNM), a deemed university, has brought out the first-ever authentic Pali-Hindi dictionary, (Volume I, Part II).

The NNM, located at Nalanda, is a premier institute dedicated to the studies of Pali and Buddhism.

The entire Pali "Tripitaka (collection of teachings of the Buddha)" in 41 volumes has been brought out in Devnagari script. This is the first-ever publication of the entire collection of the Pali canon in Indian alphabet. The present volume comprises of 3,018 entries of vowel a to i. Remaining vowels and consonants will be taken up in the subsequent volumes, NNM director Panth said.

"This dictionary is expected to be of much help to the students, researchers and common readers who have deep interest in understanding the practice and the words of the Buddha. It will also enrich the lexicography of Hindi language," Panth said.

Bihar governor Debanand Konwar will formally release it at the main auditorium of National Museum, New Delhi, on Friday.

The first part of the first volume of this dictionary was published in 2007 and was released by the then President of India, APJ Abul Kalam, at Kushinagar (UP) on May 2, 2007, on the occasion of the concluding ceremony of the year-long 2550th Mahaparinirvana celebrations of Lord Buddha.

"Efforts are on for the first time in the history of Pali lexicography to extract the meaning of a word from its actual usage in literature. It explains the grammatical formation of each word and its various shades of meaning, enumerates the place of its occurrence and provides copious citations from original Pali texts," he said.

Keeping in view the difficulty faced by the students, researchers and common readers in understanding the true imports of Pali passages in the absence of any authentic Pali-Hindi dictionary, the NNM made an ambitious plan for compiling an authentic Pali-Hindi dictionary in 2004, Panth said.

The NNM was set up in 1951 by the first President of India Dr Rajendra Prasad with a view to revive the study of Pali language and Buddhism. Keeping in view its international importance, the NNM was taken over by the Union ministry of culture as an autonomous institute in 1994. It was granted deemed university status in 2006.

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Guv-to-release-Pali-Hindi-dictionary-today/articleshow/5224668.cms