Ancient Indian Lexicons

Further analysis of language is shown in in the lexicons where collections of terms under various categories are made. Yaska in his Nirukta (B. C. 500) first recorded such collections of Vedic terms for the purpose of interpretation of sacred texts The Kolas of classical Sanskrit, on the other hand, supply lists of words bearing same or similar meanings. Thus the Dictionaries are of two kinds, viz., synonymous in which words are grouped by subject-matter, and hononymous (nauartha) in which words of different meanings are grouped together. References are found to Katyayana's Namamala, Vachaspati's Sabdarnava, Vikramaditya's Samsiravarta, and Vyadi's Utpalini. Fragments of a dictionary exist in Weber's Mss. found in Kashgar The well known dictionary of Amarasinha (about 8 th century), the Nama-linganusasana, is usually known as Amarakcsa. It is synonymous, arranged in three books of subjects, with an appendix in the last on homonyms, indeclinables, and genders. Commentaries were written on it by it by Kshirasvamin (11 th century), Vandyaghatiya Sarivananda (1159), and Rayamukutamani (1531). Purushottamadeva (15 th century) wrote the Trikandasesha, and the Haravali of synonyms and homonyms refers to very rare terms, many being from Buddhist texts. Sasvata's Anekartha Samuchchaya belongs to the period of Amarakosa. In about 950 Halayudha's Abhidhana-ratna-mala and a

century later Yadavaprakasa's Vaijayanti arranged words by syllables, genders, and initial letters. In the 12 th century century Hemachandra's Abhidhana-chintamani deals with synonyms in six sections beginning with Jain gods and ending with abstracts, adjectives and particles, and is supplemented by the Botanic dictionary Nighantu-sesha. His Anekartha-samgraha deals with hononyms in six sections beginning with one-syllable and ending with six-syllable words arranged by initial letters and end consonants. The Jain Dhananjaya wrote in 1140 his Namamala, and Mahesvara wrote in 1111 Visvaprakasa. Later came Mankha's Anekarthakosa and Kesavasvamin's Nanartharnava-samgraha (about 1200). To the 14 th century belong Medirikara's Anekartha sabda-kosa and Irugapa's Nanartha-ratnamala. There are minor works like Ekakshara-kosa, Dvirupa-kosa, Trirupakosa, etc., and medical, astronomical or astrological glossaries. In 972 Dhanapala wrote a Prakrit dictionary, Prakrta-lakshmi-nimamala out of which Hemachandra produced his Desanamamala. At the time of Akbar there came a Persian-Sanskrit dictionary, Parasiprakasa, and in 1643 under the same title Vedangaraya wrote a dictionary on Astronomical and Astrological terms. The cultural as well as the scientific value of this class of work is obvious. They at once point to the vastness of the literature and their scientific arrangement, in the absence of which no one can get an idea of the niceness of literature.