Some twenty-five years ago when the teaching of Pali was commenced at Ananda College, the textbooks used by Buddhist monks, which were centuries old, were found unsuitable for use by its pupils. Mr. P. de S. Kularatna, then principal of Ananda College, who appointed me as a tutor in Pali, urged me to produce some suitable textbooks, and I wrote in three parts the Palibhashavatarana in Sinhalese and compiled a Pali Reader named Palipathavali.
Later I wrote the New Pali Course in two parts for the benefit of those who wished to learn Pali through the medium of English. This book is used even in some foreign countries and is now in its third edition. A Higher Pali Course too is now ready for the press.
There yet lacked for a study of Pali a concise Pali-English Dictionary and an English-Pali Dictionary. The Pali-English Dictionary of the Pali Text Society is too large and too expensive for those studying in schools and colleges. Therefore I prepared two such works during the war, but owing to paper control, which was lifted only recently, the Pali-English Dictionary alone is now appearing in print. The English-Pali Dictionary will be printed as early as possible.
In compiling this work I have constantly referred to the Pali-English Dictionary, published by the Pali Text Society (of England), but I have not followed its method. In some places I have not accepted the meanings and constructions it has given; for instance, the construction of ana bhava is given to me as anu + bhava, in agreement with the commentaries, while the P.T.S. Dictionary gives it as ana + bhava. There is no prefix ana in Pali, and na before a vowel is changed to an and not to ana. Moreover na + bhava would mean “non-cessation”, and not “utter cessation” as the P.T.S. Dictionary gives it. Similar is the construction gave there for anugghateti as an + ugghateti. The meaning given there for terovassika is “lasting over or beyond a. year (or season”); here the stands, according to the commentary, for three, and ro represents “four”; then terovassika means: “three or four years old”.
I have included some important words missing in that dictionary although my work is of smaller compass. In giving the roots of verbs I have preserved their traditional Pali forms as far as possible though the P.T.S. Dictionary has always followed the Sanskrit Dictionaries.
My thanks are due to Prof. O.H. de A. Wijesekara, M.A., Ph.D., and Dr. G.C. Mendis, B.A., Ph.D., both of the University of Ceylon, who encouraged me to begin this work. Prof. Wijesekara has always readily helped me whenever I met with any difficulty. He has now kindly consented to revise my English-Pali Dictionary.
