The Practical Sanskrit English Dictionary

This Dictionary has been undertaken to supply a want long felt by the student, f a complete and at the same time cheap Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Very little need, I think, be said with regard to the necessity of bringing out a work like this, when the study of Sanskrit has received such a strong impetus during the last twenty five years. There have been four or five Sanskrit-English Dictionaries published till now; but very few of them fulfil the two essential conditions of the popularity and usefulness of such works: satisfying all the requirements of students and at the same time being within their easy reach. The Dictionaries of Professors Wilson and Monier Williams are very useful and valuable works, but their prices-particularly of the latter-are prohibitively high, and they do not also meet many of the most ordinary wants of Sanskrit readers. A student, while reading Sanskrit at School or College, generally expects that the Dictionary which he uses will give will give appropriate equivalents for such words and compound expressions as may have peculiar meanings or shades of meaning in particular passages.

This dictionary gives full explanations of the more important technical terms, particularly Nyaya (the school of logic in Hindu philosophy), Alankara (spiritual awareness and growth), Vedanta (one of six orthodox philosophical systems or viewpoints rooted in the Upanishads ), dramaturgy (the art of writing and producing plays ) and grammar. Quotations in Sanskrit are given wherever the author has considered them helpful to the student's understanding.

First pub. in 1890 it is considered the best Sanskrit-English dictionary and has been published several times.