- Object of this Dictionary
No apology is needed for undertaking the compilation of the present 'Dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar', which, although concise, is expected to meet the needs of Sanskrit scholars and research students of Vyākaraṇa and other Shastras by serving as a useful reference book in their study of, and research work in, any branch of Sanskrit learning. The many independent treatises in the several Shastras and the learned commentaries upon them, as also the commentaries on classical poems and dramas, are, in fact, full of grammatical explanations of words and constructions, involving a liberal use of grammatical expressions and technical terms at several places. The elementary knowledge of grammar which a general scholar of Sanskrit possesses, is not found sufficient for his understanding fully the grammatical references in these books, especially so at present, when the practice of sending young boys to the Tolls and Sanskrit pāṭhashālas to study the standard classical works with commentaries along with some standard elementary treatises on grammar, has already stopped. The number of Sanskrit Pandits and Shastris,who had to obtain a sound footing in grammar before they undertook the study of the higher texts of the several Shastras, and who therefore could be consulted by young scholars and research workers in the several Shastras, has also diminished considerably. The usual Sanskrit Dictionaries such as those of Monier Williams, V.S.Apte and others are found of no avail in supplying explanations of the grammatical technique which confronts modern scholars at every step in their critical reading of the several Sanskrit texts. In these circumstances it is only the technical dictionaries of the type of the present 'Dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar' that can render a valuable assistance to scholars and research workers in their reading of the higher Sanskrit texts in the several Shastras.
- Beginnings of Sanskrit Grammar
Every science has necessarily its own terminology and a special vocabulary. The remark is true with respect to Sanskrit Grammar or Vyākaraṇaśāstra which has developed as a science during the last two thousand years and has got several technical terms and numerous words with a special grammatical significance. The origin of grammar can well-nigh be traced to the Period of the Brāhmaṇas i. e. about 2000 B.C., when Vedic scholars began to discuss the meaning of the inspired Vedic hymns by carefully showing disconnected, the words of the Vedic hymns and noting down the differences in accents as also the changes caused by their coalescence in the continuous recital or the Saṁhitāpāṭha. They also tried to explain the sense of the Vedic words by tracing them back to the roots of suitable senses and laid down rules for their proper and correct
