This story is from January 23, 2018

Governor releases Tamil-Sanskrit lexicon with 45,000 words

Governor releases Tamil-Sanskrit lexicon with 45,000 words
Governor Banwarilal Purohit (C) releases the dictionary at Music Academy on Tuesday. (L-R) Also seen are Solomon Pappiah, Tamil orator, H Raja, BJP national secretary, Dinesh Kamat, national organising general secretary, Samskrita Bharathi, and R Vanniarajan, former principal, Vivekananda College.
CHENNAI: A physical education professor’s dream of publishing a Tamil-Sanskrit dictionary came true on Tuesday but three months after his death. The dictionary, compiled by S Hariharan, has more than 45,000 words, making it the biggest book published on this field so far. Governor Banwarilal Purohit released the dictionary by giving a copy to national organising general secretary of Samskrita Bharathi Dinesh Kamat.

It was after his retirement from Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Hariharan started compiling a Tamil-Sanskrit dictionary. It took him two decades to finish the work but he died in October 2017 at 88. His son and BJP national secretary H Raja took the initiative and finally published the dictionary.
“I am sure that the compilation will be greatly useful to scholars and professors who wish to enhance their understating and knowledge based on the texts written or compiled in Sanskrit. The dictionary will help scholars do translations for these available texts and thus open up an ocean of knowledge,” said Purohit.
In K V Sharma’s research work “Science texts in Sanskrit in the Manuscript repositories of Kerala and Tamil Nadu” it has been stated there are about a lakh and a half manuscripts of Sanskrit in public repositories and in private collections in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, said the governor. “Of them, 12,250 manuscripts are related to science. Of these 3,500 are major treatises on science. Sharma, who headed the team, further concluded that Indian scholars have all along been accessing only 7% of texts in Sanskrit and that more needs to be done. It is here that dictionaries such as the one compiled by Hariharan will come in very useful,” said Purohit.
Born in 1929 in Thanjavur, Hariharan was an active member of the RSS and even went to jail for his association with the organization when it was banned in 1948. After completing his graduation from the University of Madras, he did his diploma in physical education from YMCA College of Physical Education, Chennai. He has co-authored many books on physical education. out of which “Track and Field (planning, construction and maintenance)” is very popular.
Shri Sankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamigal of the Kachi Kamakoti Peetam, Tamil orator Solomon Pappaiah, R Vannirajan, former principal of Vivekananda College were present at the function held at the Music Academy.
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