Scholars toil, agonize over Sanskrit project

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PUNE, India -- For three generations, they have compiled and argued, agonized and transcribed -- toiling in monastic tedium to turn an intricate 44-letter language into six volumes, so far, of word after long-forgotten word.

They have delved into the grammatical roots of "antahpravesakama" and debated the pun hidden in "anangada." They've done a brain-numbingly complete dissection of "anekakrta."

Now, 55 years after a group of scholars began composing the authoritative dictionary of Sanskrit, the long-dead language of India's ancient glory, they are almost done -- with the first letter.

"Sanskrit," sighed Vinayaka Bhatta, chief editor of the dictionary project at Deccan College, "is not easy to translate."

No kidding.

The project has consumed the skills of more than two dozen scholars (so far), cataloged 9 million citations of Sanskrit terms and given the most thorough of definitions to thousands of words.

All this in a language glutted with puns, metaphors and multiple meanings that hasn't been spoken -- except in religious rituals or by a handful of academics -- for centuries.

The low estimate to completing the project? At least another 50 years.

That -- they'll tell you in Pune -- isn't really that long.