“It was like tapasya . Many years of my life have been invested in compilation of this dictionary,” said Professor Abhai Maurya, who recently released an English-Hindi dictionary.
Lack of dictionaries with simple meanings led him to embark on this project and he single-handedly compiled the 1,900-page dictionary.
“The main idea was to keep the meanings simple yet exhaustive,” said Prof. Maurya, who was the Vice-Chancellor of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Hyderabad.
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“For eight years, my day started at 5.30 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m. The only breaks I took were for food. It’s only now that I have started meeting family and friends. It was a lot of hard work...At one point, the project felt like a misadventure. It was almost as if I was stuck between the devil and the deep sea. However, when a certain amount of labour has been invested you cannot really let it go,” he said.
“Hindi equivalents for meanings are much more difficult as most of them have Sanskrit roots. They are usually artificially created meanings of English words based on Sanskrit grammar, which not everyone understands. Instead of picking up Sanskrit meanings, I gave descriptive meanings in order to make them simpler for the reader so that an image can form in their minds,” Prof. Maurya said.
The dictionary is primarily aimed at scholars and translators who can use it as a reference book. The lexicographer has promised to release a smaller version for students. “It will entice you to read more,” he said.
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