Guest guest Posted January 21, 2001 Report Share Posted January 21, 2001 V.M.Sundaram made some suggestions for amending the BSB Sanskrit Glossary. I have added some comments below: - 1) Use the same romanised spelling for any given word throughout. e.g. Iswara, iiswara, or iisvara - standardise one spelling for the entire glossary. This would defeat the object a I see it, which is for someone who does not know the Sanskrit to be able to select a word and immediately find the (approximate) English equivalent. Unfortunately posters do not always use the same form. Many forms are used (including many unintentional mis-spellings). If these are not also present then the reader will be unable to find the meaning. The glossary is not intended (as I understand it) to provide the definitive 'correct' version of spelling or part of speech. 2) ca for citram, ca+iishaH etc. Don't really understand this but I suspect the above comment still applies here. 3) aa for the long vowel, e.g. vyaasaacaarya Yes, except that some posters will still use A, whether intentionally or accidentally. 4) Demarcate the verb form, and the past participle used as a noun or adjective, specially where the english meaning appears identical. e.g. pratishhThitaa (p.p.) and patitishhThati (verb) - both being translated as embedded in. Happy with this except that the (p.p) or whatever will have to appear as part of the English meaning (i.e. after the '=') in order for the macro to work. 5) It is better not to split technical terms like nimitta kaaraNam , upaadaana kaaraNam. This would mean that the reader would have to know beforehand that the two words went together in order that he could select them both to search for. Since most users will not know this, it is not really possible, desirable though it might be in theory. If at all you want to split, then give the meaning of nimitta as = (intelligent)cause, and not as = intelligent (cause). Incidentally, nimitta can also mean instument as in nimitta-maatram bhava savya-saacin. Haven't you got this the wrong way round? I thought kaaraNam meant cause with nimitta meaning intelligent and upaadaana meaning material. So nimitta would be intelligent (with 'cause' put in brackets to remind us that this is the context in which it is normally found). 6) Treat natural pairs of words together. e.g. desha-kaala = space and time. Taking desha separately and translating it as 'place' may not be appropriate to the context. But then if someone saw the word kaala and searched for it, they would not find it. The meaning could cover this by saying that it meant 'time' in the context of space (desha) - time. 7) It may be better to list the words in the order of the devanaagari alphabet than of the roman alphabet. I do not know whether it is possible to do this on a computer. Unfortunately, MS Word does not have an option to sort on devanaagari! Anyway, since the macro uses the 'FIND' tool, it really doesn't matter what order it is in. Apologies - I seem to have disagreed with every one of your suggestions! However, I think there are two main points to bear in mind. Firstly, the glossary is intended for someone who is fairly ignorant about Sanskrit - so many of the sophistications that you suggest will be lost on them. Secondly, Sunder already spends quite a lot of time providing the meanings for the new words and I for one am extremely grateful. (I might have been forced to abandon the studying of Sadananda's BSB notes were it not for this!) I would be very loathe to give him any more work or he might decide to stop doing it! Regards, Dennis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2001 Report Share Posted January 21, 2001 Dennis Waite wrote: > V.M.Sundaram made some suggestions for amending the BSB Sanskrit Glossary. I > have added some comments below: - > > > > > 3) aa for the long vowel, e.g. vyaasaacaarya > > Yes, except that some posters will still use A, whether intentionally or > accidentally. > > 4) Demarcate the verb form, and the past participle used as a noun or > adjective, > specially where the english meaning appears identical. e.g. > pratishhThitaa (p.p.) and patitishhThati (verb) - both being > translated as > embedded in. > > Happy with this except that the (p.p) or whatever will have to appear as > part of the English meaning (i.e. after the '=') in order for the macro to > work. > > 5) It is better not to split technical terms like nimitta kaaraNam , > upaadaana > kaaraNam. > > This would mean that the reader would have to know beforehand that the two > words went together in order that he could select them both to search for. > Since most users will not know this, it is not really possible, desirable > though it might be in theory. > > If at all you want to split, then give the meaning of nimitta as > = (intelligent)cause, > and not as = intelligent (cause). Incidentally, nimitta can also > mean instument as in > nimitta-maatram bhava savya-saacin. > > Haven't you got this the wrong way round? I thought kaaraNam meant cause > with nimitta meaning intelligent and upaadaana meaning material. So nimitta > would be intelligent (with 'cause' put in brackets to remind us that this is > the context in which it is normally found). > According to the dictionary, the word Nimitta standing by itself does not mean intelligent Its primary meaning is cause. > > 6) Treat natural pairs of words together. e.g. desha-kaala = space > and time. > Taking desha separately and translating it as 'place' may not be > appropriate to the > context. > > But then if someone saw the word kaala and searched for it, they would not > find it. The meaning could cover this by saying that it meant 'time' in the > context of space (desha) - time. > But then do you think it elegant to translate desha as place (as has been done in the draft glossary) in the context of "desha kaala kalanaa " ? > > 7) It may be better to list the words in the order of the devanaagari > alphabet than of > the roman alphabet. I do not know whether it is possible to do > this on a computer. > > Unfortunately, MS Word does not have an option to sort on devanaagari! > Anyway, since the macro uses the 'FIND' tool, it really doesn't matter what > order it is in. > > Apologies - I seem to have disagreed with every one of your suggestions! No apologies needed. It is your prerogative to disagree. Nevertheles i am happy to note that you have actually agreed with 3 out of 6 of the suggestions. > > However, I think there are two main points to bear in mind. Firstly, the > glossary is intended for someone who is fairly ignorant about Sanskrit - so > many of the sophistications that you suggest will be lost on them. I disagree. As I understand, the glossary should help people to grasp the meaning of sanskrit expressions (not words alone) including technical terms used in philosophy, clearly and precisely. > Secondly, > Sunder already spends quite a lot of time providing the meanings for the new > words and I for one am extremely grateful. (I might have been forced to > abandon the studying of Sadananda's BSB notes were it not for this!) I would > be very loathe to give him any more work or he might decide to stop doing > it! I join you whole heartedly in expressing gratitude for Sunder's sterling contributions. I made my suggestions because Sunder had invited suggestions. > > > Regards. vms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2001 Report Share Posted January 22, 2001 Namaste, It will not be difficult for me to include the suggested changes, such as Sundaram-garu has sent. They will appear in the master-file only. The 'veto' power will rest with Sadaji when there is disagreement among the readers, and I shall provide the closest fit from the Monier-Williams dictionary. The only additions I would like to avoid is full-scale grammatical explanations! Regards, s. advaitin , "V.M.Sundaram" <venkataraman@p...> wrote: > I made my suggestions because Sunder had invited suggestions. > > > > > > > Regards. > > vms > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2001 Report Share Posted January 22, 2001 >Namaste, > > It will not be difficult for me to include the suggested >changes, such as Sundaram-garu has sent. They will appear in the >master-file only. > > The 'veto' power will rest with Sadaji when there is >disagreement among the readers, and I shall provide the closest fit >from the Monier-Williams dictionary. The only additions I would like >to avoid is full-scale grammatical explanations! > > >Regards, > >s. I see the primary purpose of the glossary is to help in understanding the notes on BSB that are being posted. Since the most of the words are in the connotation of Vedanta discussions, the glossary will also be helpful when we are studying other Vedanta texts. Some of the technical words that have precise meaning we should stick to the meaning as close to the context as possible. With reference to the notes, I am providing in most of the cases where Sanskrit words are used a contextual meaning and in fact one can perhaps skip the Sanskrit and read the English parts and get most of the essence. If one follows the Sanskrit one can enjoy more. I am grateful to Shree Sunder and Shree Dennis for helping me in this pursuit. They are helping me to overcome my handicaps. The essential purpose of these postings, as H.H. Parmaarthananda also emphasizes, is for maximum number of people to get maximum benefit from these. Dennis is also planning to write a Sanskrit-free version of the notes for the benefit of those who are turned off by Sanskrit. I am planning to continue the existing format. Shree Sundar has uploaded these notes into files in a separate Brahmasuutra folder in the advaitin archives for the benefit of all those new members. We will try to put all in one folder so that it will be easily accessible to everyone. From my point, the copy rights belong to Shree Paramaarthanandaji, when (and if ) he decides to bring this out as a publication. He may need sponsors to get this into a book form. Hari Om! Sadananda -- K. Sadananda Code 6323 Naval Research Laboratory Washington D.C. 20375 Voice (202)767-2117 Fax:(202)767-2623 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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