﻿AND PRACRIT LANGUAGES. 217 



Ameua's dictionary does not contain more than 

 ten thousand different words. Yet tlie Sanscrit 

 language is \-ery copious. The insertion of deri- 

 vatives^ that do not at all deviate from their regular 

 and obvious import, has been very properly deemed 

 superfluous- Compou'ul epiihets, and other com- 

 pound terms, in which the Sanscrit language is 

 peculiarly rich, are likewise omitted ; excepting such 

 as are e?pcciaHy appropriateil, by a limited accepta- 

 tion, either as titles of Deities, or as names of plants, 

 animals, &c. In fact compound term.s are formed 

 at pleasure, according to the rules of grammar ; and 

 must generally be interpreted in strict conformity 

 y\'\X\\ those rules. Technical terms too are mostly 

 excluded from general dictionaries, and consigned 

 to separate nomenclatures. Tiie Ameracvsh then is 

 less defective than might be inferred from the small 

 number of v/ords explained in it. Still, ho\i ever, it 

 needs a supplement. The Hciraval'i may be used 

 as such. It is a vocabulary of uncommon words, 

 compiled by Purusii6ttamj\, the author of an ety- 

 mological work, and also of a little colleciion of 

 monograms, entitled E'cdcshara. His Harcrcali 

 "vvas compiled by him under the patronage of 

 D'uRiTA sinua. It is noticed by Medimcar, 

 and seems to be likewise anterior to the Viszca. 



The remaining deficiencies of the Ameracosh are 

 supplied by consulting other dictionaries and voca- 

 bularies ; such as Helayxd'ua's, Vachespati's, 

 the Dharanicosha^ or some other. _ Sanso-it dic- 

 tionaries are indeed very numerous. Purushot- 

 tama and Medinicar name the UtpaUn'i, Sabdar- 

 naxa and Sansaravarta, as Morks consulted by them. 

 Purushottama adds the names of Vachespati, 

 Vyad^i and Vicramaditya ; but it is not quite 

 clear whether he mentions them as the authors and 

 patrons of these, or of other dictionaries. JM'edi- 

 NiCAR adds a fourth vocabulary called Nama- 

 ^idid, and with similar obscurity subjoins the cele- 

 brated 



