Sabdatattwabodha Abhidhana - Oriya Etymological Dictionary

Sabdatattwabodha Abhidhana - Oriya Etymological Dictionary

Author: Pandit Gopinath Nand Sarma

Year: 1916

Sabdatattwabodha Abhidhana (Oriya Etymological Dictionary), compiled by Pandit Gopinath Nand Sarma (1869-1924), was published in March 1916. With 1115 pages and 35000 words, it was the most comprehensive Oriya dictionary of the time. It was still more important a work because of its etymological approach - a first not only in Oriya but also an early example among all Indian languages. Pandit Gopinath, a person with little formal education but with profound self acquired linguistic knowledge and insight, started the compilation in 1897 and completed the same after seven years of hard work done singlehandedly. He hoped for an easy and early publication of his valuable work as the foremost literary body of the Orissa State was then contemplating a similar publication. However, the manuscript languished for years before the compiler withdrew it and published it himself with much hardship in 1916. Even then this seminal work was not spared and was criticised, rather unjustly, by many eminent literatures of the period. But the value of the dictionary was soon realised in a wider circle and it received the credit due to it - as the first modern dictionary of the Oriya language. Its style