PREFACE, 



During the whole of my service in Bengal it was my practice to note down every 

 Bengali word that I did not know, and in this way the collection of words formed a 

 large vocabulary at the end. The lists were then compared with Haughton's Bengali 

 Dictionary, with the Prakritibad-abhidhan of Shyamacharan Karmakar and with 

 the Prakiitibodh-abhidhan of Asutosh Deb. Words in my lists that were found in 

 any of those three dictionaries were generally struck out, unless they had local 

 meanings not mentioned there, and only those words were retained in the Vocabulary 

 which did not appear in any of those dictionaries or which, if they did occur there, 

 had meanings not noticed there. I had some thought of utilizing the Vocabulary 

 for a Bengali Dictionary, but that did not prove to be feasible, and at length I 

 offered it to the Asiatic Society. The Society has accepted it favourably and has 

 now published it. 



This Vocabulary will be useful for three purposes. First, it preserves verna- 

 cular words and meanings which are not generalh^ known and might be lost in time. 

 vSecondly, it helps to trace the modifications of words and their meanings, for a word 

 that is puzzling in one district may appear in another district in a form or with a 

 meaning that elucidates it at once: thus, the expression ^Jf^^^ "everything" in 

 Chittagong is strange, but becomes intelligible when compared with C^^t^5if^^ " every- 

 thing " in Dacca. Thirdly, it will aid the elucidation of the composite nature of the 

 Bengali language: thus, in the phrase CW.^ C^C«1 "children" the second word is no 

 doubt Dravidian, being the Telugu pilla, Kanarese pille, Tamil pillai, " child." 

 Perhaps compare also Telugu hidda, "child," and Tamil vidalai, "male-child." 



F. E. PARGITER, 

 Oxford, May, 1923. Indian Civil Set-vice (retired). 



