FARHANG-E ĀNANDRĀJ, a dictionary of the Persian language named in honor of the maharaja Ānand Gajapatī Rāj, the ruler of Vijayanagar in South India. It was compiled in 1306/1888-89 by the maharaja’s chief secretary (mīr monšī), the poet and lexicographer Moḥammad Pādœāh b. Ḡolām Moḥī-al-Dīn, known by the penname Šād. He had previously composed another lexicographical work for Ānand Rāj entitled Farhang-e motarādefāt wa eṣṭelāḥāt (Benares, 1294/1877; ed., Tehran, 1967). Farhang-e Ānandrāj contained about fifty thousand word-entries; it was the first dictionary of the Persian language of this size. Besides Persian vocabulary, it included Arabic loan-words as well as some words of Turkic, Indian, Greek, and Latin origin. The aim of the author was to bring together the information found in all earlier Persian dictionaries, which—in his view—were incomplete.
Farhang-e Ānandrāj is a compilation, and the author took whole articles from earlier dictionaries, making no changes. Šād enumerates in his introduction several well-known Persian dictionaries which he used as sources: Moʾayyed al-fożalāʾ (925/1519), Kašf al-loḡāt (950/1544), Farhang-e jahāngīrī (1017/1608-9, q.v.), Borhān-e qāteʿ (1062/1652, q.v.), Bahār-e ʿajam (1162/1748-49), Moṣṭalaḥāt-e Vārasta (1180/1767), Šams al-loḡāt (1220/1806), Haft qolzom (1229/1815), Maẓhar al-ʿajāʾeb (1233/1818), Ḡīāṯ al-loḡāt (1242/1826), and Farhang-e anjomanārā-ye nāṣerī (1286/1869-70). He also lists some Arab-Persian dictionaries such as Montahā al-arab (1239/1824), Montaḵab al-loḡāt (1046/1636-37), and Tāj al-maṣāder (544/1150) of Jaʿfarak Bayhaqī. The Ṣorāḥ (681/1282-83) of Jamāl Qorašī is not mentioned in the introduction, though it was used as a source and indicated throughout as “Ṣ.” A European dictionary—farhang-e farang—is also mentioned by Šād as one of his sources. This might have been the large Persian- English dictionary of Francis Johnson (Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary, London, 1852), which included many Arabic words. In the introduction Šād describes the system he developed to indicate his sources—usually by the first letter of the dictionary’s title, e.g., Bahār-e ʿajam (B), Ḡīāṯ al-loḡāt (Ḡ), etc. Sometimes they are marked differently, e.g., Moʾayyed al-fożalāʾ (Ż), Borhān-e qāteʿ (R), etc. It should be noted that the range of dictionaries used by Šād is actually wider than the list given in the introduction. He refers to such additional sources by title, e.g., Farhang-e rašīdī (q.v.).
Farhang-e Ānandrāj is arranged in strict alphabetical order, taking into account the first and all subsequent letters of each word. The dictionary is divided into thirty-two chapters (bāb), corresponding to the letters of the Persian alphabet. The entries are usually expanded. They start with the word to be explained, indicating its origin, e.g., using the letter fā for fārsī, ʿayn for ʿarabī, tā for torkī, hā for hendī. This is usually, but not always, followed by an indication of the vowels in the word. Next comes the explanation of its meaning, often supported with examples of its usage in poetry with the names of the poets cited. The entry concludes with a parenthetical indication of its source; in many cases two or more dictionaries are cited.
Šād’s apparent interest in grammar is also worth mentioning as he includes grammatical material in his lexicon with relevant explanations and examples of metaphors and allegorical expressions. Šād’s dictionary thus epitomizes the achievements of the centuries-old Persian tradition in lexicon compilation and marks a transition to the use of European methods of lexicography.
Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):
M.-ʿA. Dāʿī-al-Eslām, ed., Farhang-e Neẓām, 5 vols., Hyderabad, Deccan, 1357/1938, V, pp. mṭ-n; part. repr. in Dehḵodā, I, p. 220.
V. A. Kapranov, Tadzhiksko-persidskaya leksikografiya v Indii XVI-XIX v. (Tajik-Persian lexicography in India, 16th–19th cents.), Dushanbe, 1987.
D. N. MacKenzie, “Ḳamūs,” in EI2 IV, pp 525-27.
Š. Naqawī, Farhang-nevīsī-e fārsī dar Hend wa Pākestān, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962.
Moḥammad Pādšāh Šād, Farhang-e Ānandrāj, 3 vols., Lucknow, 1889-1892; ed. M. Dabīrsīāqī, 7 vols., Tehran, 1956-1958. Storey, III/1, p. 52, n. 68.
(Solomon Baevskiĭ)
Originally Published: December 15, 1999
Last Updated: December 15, 1999
