Amara Sinha
Amara Sinha (or Amara Simha[1]) (c. CE 375) was a Sanskrit grammarian and poet, of whose personal history hardly anything is known.
He is said to have been "one of the nine gems that adorned the throne of Vikramaditya," and according to the evidence of Xuanzang, this is the Chandragupta Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) that flourished about CE 375.[2] Other sources describe him as flourishing in c. CE 700.[1]
Most of his work was destroyed, with the exception of what is the celebrated Amara-Kosha (Treasury of Amara), a vocabulary of Sanskrit roots, in three books, and hence sometimes called Trikanda or the "Tripartite". [2] It is also known as "Namalinganushasana".
It contains 10,000 words, and is arranged, like other works of its class, in metre, to aid the memory. The first chapter of the Kosha was printed at Rome in Tamil character in 1798. An edition of the entire work, with English notes and an index by HT Colebrooke appeared at Serampore in 1808. The Sanskrit text was printed at Calcutta in 1831. A French translation by ALA Loiseleur-Deslongchamps was published at Paris in 1839. [2] Louie Rice compiled the Kannada version of it and its available 4th edition was printed in 1927 which contains three khandas and 25 sargas.[3]
References
- 1 2 "Amara-Simha" in Chambers's Encyclopædia. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 311.
- 1 2 3 Chisholm 1911.
- ↑ Amarakosha by Louie Rice edited by N.Balasubhramanyam
- Attribution
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amara Sinha". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.