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xviii heavy and more direct than their counterparts in use in India. A couple of instances would bear it out. For the English word prejudice the Malay word is purvasuinka (written as purvasangka) which in any case is a trifle more catchy that the purvagraha of Hindi. In the same category are the words wartawan, Sanskrit vartavan for journalist and berita utama, Sanskrit varta uttama or uttama varta for headlines in that language which are more expressive and to the point than patrakar and surkhiyan (Urdu word meaning those in red) in use in Hindi. Similarly more simple and direct and certainly less heavy is the word anekprasong, Sanskrit anekaprasanga of Thai for multi-purpose than its Indian counterpart bahuddesyiya . Other words falling in the same category are lokasattva of Bahasa Indonesia for animals and dhanagara, pronounced as thanakhan (lit. meaning house of money) of Thai for bank or duralekha, pronounced as thoralek of Thai for telegram. An observation that may be of interest here is that in a few languages - it is particularly relevant in the case of Thai - the Sanskrit quotient goes up with hierarchical order. There is more of Sanskrit among elites, the nobility than among the common folk. For son-in-law the Thai elites would use the word jamada, pronounced as chamada, a derivative of Sanskrit jamata while the common folk would prefer lookkhoey. Similarly the common word for marriage in Thai is taeng nan while among the elite it is either vivahamonkhon, Sanskrit vivahamangala or monkhon somrot, Sanskrit mangalasamarasa or just vivaha. Added to this is the observation that the locals while adopting words from Sanskrit have not un-often imparted them an aesthetic look. To celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the coronation of the present king the Thais used the word kancanabhisek(a) rather than the suvarnajayanti of abhiseka which would have been used in India. There is a whole lot of technical terms, educational, economic and political, drawn from Sanskrit, particularly in Lao and Thai, a study of which could be revealing. They could provide a good material to a researcher in this field. For him a work like the present one could be of inestimable value. So will it be to one who wants to take up the socio-cultural study. Sanskrit words in the languages of Southeast Asia are found in four forms: One, in their original Sanskrit form, e.g., vipaka, Cambodian, consequence; agama, Indonesian and Malay religion; gaja, Indonesian, elephant; put(e)ra, put(e)ri, Indonesian, son and daughter respectively; yapana, Lao, life maintenance; yamika, Lao, watchman; naga, Lao, a noble man; nandi, Lao, happiness, rejoicing; alpa, Malay, careless, negligent; daya, Malay, force,