''A Vedic Word Concordance'' (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
: ') is a multi-volume
concordance of the corpus of
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...
texts. It has been under preparation from 1930 and was published in 1935–1965 under the guidance of
Viśvabandhu Śāstrī (1897–1973), with an introduction in Sanskrit and English. It aims to be "a universal vocabulary register" of "Vedic works, with complete textual reference and critical
commentary bearing on
phonology
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...
,
accent, etymo-morphology, grammar,
metre
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
, text-criticism, and
Ur-Aryan philology".
Contents
The work covers 123,000 word-bases and 5,000,000 word forms found in about 400 Vedic and
Vedanga texts, including
Samhitas,
Brahmanas
The Brahmanas (; Sanskrit: , International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Brāhmaṇam'') are Vedas, Vedic śruti works attached to the Samhitas (hymns and mantras) of the Rigveda, Rig, Samaveda, Sama, Yajurveda, Yajur, and Athar ...
,
Aranyakas and
Upanishads
The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
(even very late ones). The Vedanga section does not cover all the published Shrauta or Grihya texts, however, while the Upanishad section also includes the
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...
.
The concordance extends to about 11,000 pages, published in 16 parts:
*Section: Samhitas (6 parts), 1942–1963.
*Section II: Brahmanas and Aranyakas (2 parts), 1935–36
*Section III: Upanishads (2 parts), 1945
*Section IV: Vedangas (4 parts), 1958–1961
*Index (2 parts), 1964–65.
A revised and enlarged edition was published 1973–1976.
History of development
Viśvabandhu Śāstrī continued the work of Vishveshvaranand and Nityanand, who had published word indices to the four Vedic Samhitas in 1908–1910, leading the ''Vishveshvaranand Institute'' from 1924 until his death in 1973.
After the
partition of India
The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
, the institute moved to its present premises at Sadhu Ashram,
Hoshiarpur,
Punjab, India
Punjab () is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states ...
. Most of the approximately 6000 Sanskrit manuscripts formerly located at the Dayanand College of Lahore were clandestinely brought to Hoshiarpur at the time. Since 1965, the institute has been incorporated in the
Panjab University, Chandigarh
Panjab University (PU) is an Indian collegiate public state university located in Chandigarh. Funded through both State and Union governments, it is considered a state university. It traces its origins to the University of the Punjab in Laho ...
as the ''Vishveshvaranand Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies'' (VISIS).
[
Based on the ''Vedic Word Concordance'', the institute currently compiles a ''Dictionary of Vedic Interpretation'', of which the first volume, running up to the lemma ''Agni'', has been completed.
]
Editions
*Vishva Bandhu, Bhim Dev, S. Bhaskaran Nair (eds.), '': A Vedic Word-Concordance'', Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, Hoshiarpur, 1963–1965.
References
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Related works
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External links
Enlarged Electronic Version of Bloomfield's ''A Vedic Concordance''
2005.
Plain text version (6.4 MB)
)
Vishveshvaranand Vishwa Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vedic Word Concordance
Vedas
20th-century Sanskrit literature
Concordances (publishing)