Sanskrit/Chinese/Tibetan dictionaries?

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akuppa
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 9:20 am

Sanskrit/Chinese/Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by akuppa »

Hi all,

I am attempting to work though the Sanskrit of Vasubandhu's thirty verses. I only have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit - I have worked though a text book and can confortably read (but perhaps not fully grasp) Sutras such as the Diamond but never mastered the various past tense constructions, but can look them up when needed. Verse and especially philosophical verse is another story. One problem I am having which I hope someone can help me with is that dictionaries such as the Monier-Williams do not cover specialised Buddhist vocabulary and I am having to rely on translations to figure out the meaning of some words. So my question is where do such translators get thier meanings from? What are the standard dictionaries used for the study of Sanskrit Mahyana Buddhist texts? Even Edgerton's BHS dictionary doesn't seem to cut it.

I am also hoping to move on to Chinese and perhaps even Tibetan, so if members could point me towards dictionaries that cover that period I would be grateful.
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: Sanskrit/Chinese/Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by Malcolm »

akuppa wrote: Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:58 pm Hi all,

I am attempting to work though the Sanskrit of Vasubandhu's thirty verses. I only have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit - I have worked though a text book and can confortably read (but perhaps not fully grasp) Sutras such as the Diamond but never mastered the various past tense constructions, but can look them up when needed. Verse and especially philosophical verse is another story. One problem I am having which I hope someone can help me with is that dictionaries such as the Monier-Williams do not cover specialised Buddhist vocabulary and I am having to rely on translations to figure out the meaning of some words. So my question is where do such translators get thier meanings from? What are the standard dictionaries used for the study of Sanskrit Mahyana Buddhist texts? Even Edgerton's BHS dictionary doesn't seem to cut it.

I am also hoping to move on to Chinese and perhaps even Tibetan, so if members could point me towards dictionaries that cover that period I would be grateful.
Conze's Materials for a Dictionary of the Perfection of Wisdom Literature
https://archive.org/details/materialsfo ... 2003_865_I
humble.student
Posts: 359
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2015 1:35 pm

Re: Sanskrit/Chinese/Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by humble.student »

akuppa wrote: Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:58 pm Hi all,

I am attempting to work though the Sanskrit of Vasubandhu's thirty verses. I only have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit - I have worked though a text book and can confortably read (but perhaps not fully grasp) Sutras such as the Diamond but never mastered the various past tense constructions, but can look them up when needed. Verse and especially philosophical verse is another story. One problem I am having which I hope someone can help me with is that dictionaries such as the Monier-Williams do not cover specialised Buddhist vocabulary and I am having to rely on translations to figure out the meaning of some words. So my question is where do such translators get thier meanings from? What are the standard dictionaries used for the study of Sanskrit Mahyana Buddhist texts? Even Edgerton's BHS dictionary doesn't seem to cut it.

I am also hoping to move on to Chinese and perhaps even Tibetan, so if members could point me towards dictionaries that cover that period I would be grateful.
There are various Buddhist glossaries and so on such as the Mahāvyutpatti: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahāvyutpatti
akuppa
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 9:20 am

Re: Sanskrit/Chinese/Tibetan dictionaries?

Post by akuppa »

Many thanks to both of you, its great that I can see the Sanskrit and Tibetan side by side.
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