The present compilation of Sanskrit lexicographical material from Sanskrit contexts preserved in Indonesia was undertaking, about ten years ago, at the invitation of Dr. S.M. kathe, Editor-in-Chief of the Sanskrit Dictionary on Historical Principles. It is in the first place intended as a contribution to Sanskrit Lexicography. It is not necessary to emphasize here the tremendous importance of Sanskrit and of the literature of which Sanskrit was the vehicle for the development of culture in those regions of Southeast Asia which in recent years have been studied in relation to the Indian sub-continent as “Greater India”. But it may still be necessary to stress the importance to the Indian culture of the remnants of Sanskrit literature that survive outside India prooer.
The important for the literary of India, and especially from the point of view of textual criticism, has been recognized inter alia by Surthanikar who, in his critical edition of the Mahabharata text, took into account the testimony of the fragments that survive in the Old-Javanese adaptations of the great Indian epic; and by Gonda who able to draw significant conclusions relating to the Puranas from a comparative of the Old-Javanese Brahmanda-Purana with its Indian prototypes. It is the compilers’ hope that this inventory of Sanskrit preserved in Indonesia will stimulate in India more interest in the Indonesian Sanskritizing literature and its importance for Indian cultural history that it has so far found.
The sources from which materials have been extracted for this compilation may be divided into three classes. First, also chronologically, there are the Indonesian inscriptions composed in Sanskrit; secondly, those extant Sanskrit texts which, like the Sanskrit texts from Bali, may have, in part at least been composed in Indonesia; and thirdly the Sanskrit materials that have been incorporated in the Old-Javanese of epic and purana.
The compilers have had to rely on published materials. It is clear, however, that much more materied is extant in manuscript; the huge editorial labour involved in the extraction of materials from these manuscripts could not at this point be undertaken. A beginning had to be made; fortunately the available texts in published from are conpious enough to provide a sufficiently broad basis, so that future editors will find a great deal of help in the present inventory. The compilers expect and hope that continued and commission attach to this first attempt.
In still another field this glossary will prove to be useful: that of the study, and eventually the inventory, of Sanskrit words that have been borrowed by the languages of Indonesia. Originally it was the compilers’ intention to add to this volume relation to Sanskrit lexicography a companion volume relation to the lexicography of the Indonesian Languages and attempt a glossary of Sanskrit loans in Indonesia, the for such a glossary is not abandoned, but its realization had to be postponed.
The compilers are grateful to Dr. S. m. Katre for undertaking the publication of this work; and they welcome his decision to publish it separately in Vak. Being available in this non-definitive from the glossary can be added to and improved upon before materials from it are eventually incorporated in the Sanskrit Dictionary on Historical Principles, and further contributions, also from materials which could not be entered into this glossary, will be very welcome. The compilers are very much aware of the many problems that relate to the established of the many problems that relate to the Sanskrit readings in, for example, the Parwas, and of the problems of textual criticism not entirely met by Sylvain Levi in his edition of Sanskrit texts preserved in Bali. Much work still needs to be done; it is the compilers hope that the high degree of completeness of the material extracted from those texts which they have included will facilitate such work yet to be done.
The collecting of the materials was done under the general direction of Professor Dr. j gonad, but the responsibility for the compilation must go to Dr. J. A. B. van Buttoned and Dr. J. Ensink. The former collected materials from the Inscriptions, the Adi-Parwa, Bhisma-Parwa, and the Brahmanda-Purana, the latter from the Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan, Wirataparwa, Agastya-Parwa and the Sanskrit from Bali, The former was also responsible for the preparation of the manuscript.
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