1. The Transliteration, adopted for
the leading words upon Dr. Lepsius's system,
is mainly given to assist European students
of the language, who may feel the need of such
a help. This system follows the pronunciation
and is fully explained under the head "Trans-
literation". Foreign words are usually trans-
literated in their original shape.
2. Sanscrit Roots. It is necessary to
make a few remarks regarding the form of the
Sanscrit roots and words which are given in this
Dictionary. In the South of India the Grammar
of Pāṇini is alone studied, and it is indeed the
greatest work on Sanscrit Grammar, but roots
and words are not always given here in the forms
which a student of Pāṇini would expect. In
every grammar it is necessary to adopt some
conventional way of indicating the changes that
roots and words formed from them undergo, and
for this purpose there is in Pāṇini's Grammar an
elaborate apparatus of letters added to roots, and
which are called anubandha, and even letters
which form part of the root itself are arbitrarily
changed. So we find in the Dhātu-pāṭha
(or list of roots) šṭhā for sthā, and hṛṅ for
hṛ. The Grammars of Vopadēva, šāka-
ṭāyana etc. have a totally different set of such
letters, Philologists in Europe have found that
it is an improvement to change the Indian sys-
tem in some respects, and the authors of the St.
Petersburg Dictionary * of Sanscrit, which is by
far the best and most complete, have adopted this
view. Philologists have come to the conclusion
that the vowels ṛ, ṝ and ḷi are not primitive, so
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in this Dictionary Dr. Gundert generally gives
words according to this view as adopted
by the authors of the St. Petersburg Dictio-
nary. The roots which end in the above vowels
will here be found ending in r, e.g. d ṛ is given
as dar; d h ṛ as dhar; h ṛ as har. So also
the numerous nouns signifying an agent which
end in ṛ would here be given as ending in ar;
e.g. kartṛ as kartar. So also diphthongs
which terminate roots in the dhātupāṭha are
considered as secondary, and thus instead of
gai we find gā; and sā instead of sō. Natives
of India who consult Dr. Gundert's work must
not be led away by the idea that the only
right or possible ways of representing Sans-
crit roots and words are those which Indian
Grammarians have found convenient. A little
experience will convince them that the contrary
is the case.
3. The Dravidian element in
Sanscrit. A number of words apparently of
Sanscrit origin have, on closer examination, turn-
ed out to be merely sanscritized Dravidian
words. The author of this Dictionary, in a
German paper on this subject, has pointed out*
many such words e.g. kēyūram, putraṅ,
markaḍam, viraḷam, etc. Their reception
and especially that of puttaɤam into Sans-
crit may, as the author observed, be considered
a strong proof of a once flourishing literary
period in the Deccan, whenever that time may
have been.—Sometimes the words or roots of
both languages coincide, without however justi-
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