A Critical Pali Dictionary, Begun by V. Trenckner, Continuing the Work of Dines Andersen and Helmer Smith.

• Author: Collins, Steven
• Position: Book Review

A Critical Pali Dictionary, Begun by V. Trenckner, Continuing the Work of Dines Andersen and Helmer Smith, vol. III, fasc. 7: kasavacunna-kamadhatu. Edited by OSKAR V. HINUBER. Copenhagen: THE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES, UNIV. OF COPENHAGEN, 2001. Pp. xiv + A-D + 343-86.

The Critical Pali Dictionary (CPD) was begun in 1924. Vol. I, words in short a-, was completed with the addition of Epilegomena, in 1948. Vol. II, long a- to o-, was completed in 1990. In 1991 the main sponsors of CPD, the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish Research Council for the Humanities, terminated their sponsorship. Fortunately a number of other sponsors were then found, and vol. III began publication in 1992 under the editorship of Oskar von Hinuber and Ole Pind. They wrote then that it was planned to publish one fascicle of 65-80 pages per year, and thus complete vols. III-IV 4 in ten years. Fasciscles 2 and 3 appeared in 1993 and 1994; fascicles 4-5 were published together in 1997, and fascicle 6 appeared in 1999. The current fascicle appears with a "Notice about the Development of the CPD" from the now sole editor, von Hinuber, in which he recounts the difficulties the project has recently encountered. Two of its contributors died, including Else Pauly, who had "worked for the CPD probably longer than anybody else in its history" (p. vii). Moreover in 1998 major funding support was lost, which prevented the continuing employment of Ole Pind, and in 1999 the Royal Danish Academy, which had been associated with CPD from the beginning, also withdrew. With support now from the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, it is hoped that vol. III, to the end of letter k-, will be completed "within fifteen years," with a fascicle appearing every three years. Given that...