A History of Sanskrit Literature c20.s4: Lexicography

c20.s4.1

Zachariæ in *Die indischen Wörterbücher* (in Bühler's *Encyclopædia*, 1897) deals with the subject as a whole (complete bibliography). The Sanskrit dictionaries or *koças* are collections of rare words or significations for the use of poets. They are all versified; alphabetical order is entirely absent in the synonymous and only incipient in the homonymous class. The *Amarakoça* (ed. with Maheçvara's comm., Bombay), occupies the same dominant position in lexicography as Pāṇini in grammar, not improbably composed about 500 A.D. A supplement to it is the *Trikāṇḍa-çesha* by Purushottamadeva (perhaps as late as 1300 A.D.). Çāçvata's *Anekārtha-samuchchaya* (ed. Zachariæ, 1882) is possibly older than *Amara*. Halāyudha's *Abhidhānaratnamālā* dates from about 950 A.D. (ed. Aufrecht, London, 1861). About a century later is Yādavaprakāça's *Vaijayantī* (ed. Oppert, Madras, 1893). The *Viçvaprakāça* of Maheçvara Kavi dates from 1111 A.D. The *Mankha-koça* (ed. Zachariæ, Bombay, 1897) was composed in Kashmir about 1150 A.D. Hemachandra (1088–1172 A.D.) composed four dictionaries: *Abhidhāna-chintāmaṇi*, synonyms (ed. Böhtlingk and Rieu, St. Petersburg, 1847); *Anekārtha-saṃgraha*, homonyms (ed. Zachariæ, Vienna, 1893); *Deçīnāmamālā*, a Prākrit dictionary (ed. Pischel, Bombay, 1880); and *Nighaṇṭu-çesha*, a botanical glossary, which forms a supplement to his synonymous *koça*.