Narmakosh
{{Short description|Monolingual Gujarati dictionary prepared by Narmadashankar Dave (1873)}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Narmakosh}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = Narmakosh
| image = Narmakosh first volume title page.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Title page of first volume, 1861
| author = Narmadashankar Dave
| title_orig = નર્મકોશ
| orig_lang_code = gu
| title_working =
| country = India
| language = Gujarati
| release_number =
| genre =
| publisher =
| publisher2 =
| pub_date = {{plainlist|
- Vol. 1 (1861)
- Vol. 2 (1862)
- Vol. 3 (1864)
- Vol. 4 (1873)
}}
| published =
| pages =
| isbn =
| oclc = 40551020
| dewey =
| congress = PK1847 .N37 1998
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource =
}}
Narmakosh ({{IPA|gu|nər.mə.koʃ|pron|}}), published in 1873, is a monolingual Gujarati dictionary prepared by Narmadashankar Dave (1833–1886), a poet and scholar. Regarded as the first of its kind in the Gujarati language, it contains 25,268 words.
History
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| quote = "School students used to find it difficult to comprehend some of the words in my poems. Hence, I decided to compile a 'vocabulary' of all such words by arranging them in alphabetical order. When I started the compilation I realized that such words were far too many. This motivated me to create a dictionary which would contain majority of the words in Gujarati language. Dr. Dhirajram endorsed this idea and on the 10th November, 1860 I started this compilation."
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| source = ― Narmad, Mari Hakikat, p. 58{{cite book |last=Suhrud|first=Tridip|author-link=Tridip Suhrud|title=Narrations of a Nation: Explorations Through Intellectual Biographies|chapter=Narmadashankar Lalshankar: Towards History and Self Knowing|chapter-url=http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/46631/7/07_chapter%202.pdf|publisher=School of Social Sciences, Gujarat University|location=Ahmedabad|type=Ph.D|pages=53|hdl=10603/46631}}
}}
Narmad's poems were prescribed for studies in schools. Because he had introduced a new style of writing, students were finding it difficult to understand the meaning of many words of Sanskrit origin that he used in his poems. Complaints reached him and he decided to compile all of the difficult words he had used in his poems and of give their meanings, to enable students to fully comprehend them. Later he decided to expand this into a dictionary covering all the words in the Gujarati language which would be useful to students.{{cite book|last=Broker|first=Gulabdas|author-link=Gulabdas Broker|title=Narmadashankar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eesPAAAAMAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|location=New Delhi|pages=40–41|oclc=4136864}} Narmad worked for nine years, 1860 to 1868, to prepare it.{{cite book|last=Jhaveri|first=Mansukhlal Maganlal|author-link=Mansukhlal Jhaveri|title=History of Gujarati Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DA0RAAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|location=New Delhi|oclc=5309868}}
The first volume of the dictionary was published in 1861, the second in 1862, the third in 1864 and the fourth and last volume, though prepared in 1866, was published in 1873.{{cite book|author=Amaresh Datta|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1021|year=1988|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-81-260-1194-0|page=1021}} In 1873 edition, Narmad discussed in detail the rules of writing in the Gujarati language.{{cite journal|last=Sebastian|first=V|title=Gandhi and the Standardisation of Gujarati|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=44|issue=31|date=August 2009|page=97|jstor=25663396}} {{subscription required}} He also published his most famous poem, "Jai Jai Garavi Gujarat", for the first time, in the preface of the book.{{cite book|last1=Mehta|first1=Nalin|last2=Mehta|first2=Mona G.|title=Gujarat Beyond Gandhi: Identity, Society and Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fdzdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT17|year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-98834-2|page=17}}{{cite book|last=Yagnik|first=Achyut|title=Shaping Of Modern Gujarat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FYDviPFeoSAC&pg=PT96|year=2005|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-81-8475-185-7|page=96}} Before Narmad, several attempts had been made in Gujarat to compile dictionaries, but all employed both English and Gujarati in their definitions. Narmakosh was the first dictionary to explain the meaning of Gujarati words solely in Gujarati. It contains 25,268 words.{{cite book|author=Bal Govind Misra|title=Lexicography in India: proceedings of the First National Conference on Dictionary Making in Indian Languages, Mysere [i.e. Mysore], 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzwhAAAAMAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages|location=Mysore|page=23}}
Reception
K. M. Jhaveri considered it one of Narmad's best works, and said that "It has remained a model dictionary ever since it was published in 1873".{{cite book|author=Krishnalal Mohanlal Jhaveri|title=Further milestones in Gujarāti literature|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.143057/2015.143057.Further-Milestones-In-Gujarati-Literature#page/n79|year=1924|publisher=N.M. Tripathi & Co.|location=Bombay|page=71|oclc=569209571}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Internet Archive|id=dli.granth.78776}} (1873 ed.)
- {{Internet Archive|id=in.ernet.dli.2015.537816}}
- [https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/ghp_booksection_detail/Mzk3LTE3NjItMTE=#page/1/mode/2up Narmakosh] at Gandhi Heritage Portal
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