A Glossary of the Khasi- A North-Western Himalayan Dialect of Jammu and Kashmir (An Old and Rare Book)

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In the galaxy of linguists the name of Dr. Siddheshwar Varma would always be remembered for his works in the field of linguistics. Among his many works the Dictionary of 27 North-Western Himalayan Dialects, investigated from 1928 to 1961 A.D., is a monumental work. Dr. Varma devoted prime of his youth wandering in the North- Western Himalayan regions at his own cost and interest for the collection of multifarious linguistic material, sometime, putting his life in danger. By 1961, he was able to compile the Dictionary and entrusted it to the Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute for its publication. As, many other research works of Dr. Varma were taken in hand by our Institute for publication, and, moreover, because of the fact that it was highly technical one, the present Dictionary could not receive priority. The phonetic signs used in the work were stumbling block in the process of finalisation of its press copy. A separate unit of the Research Department of the Institute was engaged for preparing cards, but no substantial improvement could be made to make the work final for press, though it was being declared in reports that the work was ready for press. In this state of flux the work remained shelved for a long period.

In 1984, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Dr. R. K. Sharma, the then Vice-Chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi, in order to study and report on the academic plans of the V. V. B. I. S. & I. S. The committee, in its report submitted to the Vice Chancellor, felt the need of taking up the publication of this important work in its earliness.

Our esteemed Vice-Chancellor, Prof. R.P. Bambah, too, taking keen interest in the publication of this monumental work, discussed the matter with Dr. B. R. Sharma, Ex- Director of V. V. B. I. S. & I. S., who had come to deliver Acharya Vishva Bandhu Memorial Lectures in March, 1988 at Chandigarh. Dr. Sharma expressed his high appreciation about the work and told him that this Dictionary, if published, would prove to be a very valuable contribution to Indo-Aryan linguistics and would be widely appreciated by the Indologists all over the world.