NOTES BY THE PUBLISHER.
 

1.    The Trcmsliteration, adopted for
the leading words upon Dr. Lepgias's system,
is mainly giyen 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 Hoots. 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 Panini is alone studied, and it is indeed the
greatest work on Sanscrit Qrammar, but roots
and words are not always given here in the forms
which a student of Panini 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 Fanini'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 Dhatu-patha
(or list of roots) s t h a for s t h a, and h r n for
hr. The Grammars of Vopadeva, saka-
t a y a n a 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 uf 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 r, r and li are not primitive, so

* Sanscrit WSrterbuch von BShtUngk & Roth.
 

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 r is given
asdar;dhrasdhar;hrashar. So also
the numerous nouns signifying an agent which
end in r would here be given as ending in ar;
e.g. kartras kartar. So also diphthongs
which terminate roots in the dhatupatha are
considered as secondary, and thus instead of
gai we find ga; and sa instead of so. 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 Sansoritized Dravidian
words. The author of this Dictionary, in a
German paper on this subject, has pointed out *
many such words e.g. keytiram, putran,
markadam, viralam,etc. Their reception
and especially that of putta'yam into Sans¬
crit may, as the author observed, be considered
a strong proof of a once flourishing literary
period in the Deccao, whenever that time may
have been. — Sometimes the words or roots of
both languages coincide, without however justi-

* See also an article by the Rev. F. ECittel in the
Indian Antiquary, Anpost 1872.   p. 235.