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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