Customer Reviews

Concise Sanskrit English Dictionary (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary)

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Concise it certainly is. The small paperback book contains little extraneous information--however helpful it might have been--and its verb forms seem to be sadly lacking. Were the shortage of information the only problem, I might still recommend the book with only a few reservations; however, the devanaagarii script is so small and smudgy that at times it's difficult to even make out what a particular word is supposed to be. For travelling scholars or those who only need a small reference for reminder's sake, this might be a good, inexpensive pick. However, for beginners a more comprehensive and comprehendable dictionary would be a good choice.

Excellent dictionary. Very comprehensive. My only complaint is the size of the type, which, at times, blurs Sanskrit characters. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it as a part of any Sanskrit scholar's library.

Let me make clear what is so concise about this book. For one thing, it is exclusively Sanskrit-to-English; there is no English-to-Sanskrit section. For another, the Sanskrit words are written only in Devanagari script, without Roman transliteration. There isn't even a reference key provided. Because of this, I would recommend this book only if you are already familiar with Sanskrit and just want a reference that will fit in your pocket. Otherwise, you might want to find something else, although I'm not aware of many other choices.