The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary - Tuninst.net

AFTERWORD.
I. Dictionary Work.
It had been my intention at the end of the work to give a full account of Pali lexicography, its
history and aims, but as the Dictionary itself has already' been protracted more than others and
I have wished, I have, in order to save time and to bring the work to a finish, to reserve a detailed
discussion of the method of dictionary work for another occasion, and outline here only the essentials
of what seems to me worth mentioning at all events.
WTien Rhys Davids in 1916 entrusted me with the work, he was still hopeful and optimistic about
it, in spite of the failure of the first Dictionary scheme, and thought it would take only a few years to get
it done. He seemed to think that the material which was at hand (and the value of which he greatly
overrated) could be got ready for press with very little trouble. Alas !
it was not so. For it was not
merely and not principally a rearrangement and editing of ready material: it was creative and re-creative
work from beginning to end, building an intellectual (so to say manomaya) edifice on newly sunk founda-
tions and fitting all the larger and smaller [khtiddakdnukhitddakdm) accessories into their places.
This was not to be done in a hurry, nor in a leisurely way. It was a path which often led through
jungle and thicket, over stones and sticks: " vettacaro sankupatho pi cinno" (J 111.541).
On the road many allurements beset me in the shape of problems which cropped up, whether they
referred to questions of grammar, syntax, phonology, or etymology; or literature, philosophy, and Buddhist
psychology. I had to state them merely as problems and collect them, but I dared not stand still and
familiarize with them. Thus much material has been left over as " chips from the dictionary workshop."
These I hope I shall some day find an opportunity of working out.
For the first part of the way I had to a great extent the help and guidance of my teacher and
friend Rhys Davids ; but the second half I had to go quite alone,—Fate did not spare him to see
the work right through. I am sure he would not have been less glad than myself to-day to see the
task finished.
It happens that with the completion of the P.T.S. Dictionary, the second dictionary of Pali, v.e
celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the appearance of the first Pali Dictionary by R. C. Childers. That
work was a masterpiece of its time, and still retains some of its merits. Our dictionary will not altogether
replace Childers, it will supplement him. The character of Childers' Dictionary is so different from ours,
there is such an enormous discrepancy between the material which he had for his work and which we
had for ours, that it would almost be a farce to recast Childers. We needed something entirely different
and original. Childers has now only historical value. Considering that Childers has no references
to any of the P.T.S. publications, and that the Pali Dictionary embraces all the material of these
publications as well as of others, we may well speak of an entirely new dictionary, which is essential
for the study of Pah Buddhism from its sources, a task which can never be accomplished with Childers
alone.'
Yet it may be interesting to compare merely on the surface the two dictionaries. The " new " Pali
Dictionary contains 146,000 authentic references against some 38,500 of Childers (of which only half
are authentic); the number of head-words treated amounts to 17,920 against 11,420, after omitting in ours
about 900 words which Childers gives with an Abhp reference only. Anybody will admit that substantial
progress is evidenced by these figures.
1 In this connection I may quote a remark by a competent critic (Air. E. J. Thomas), who says: " Rhys Davids
wanted to make the Pali Dictionary ' twice as good as Childers,' but it is far more than that."
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