George Grierson’s edition of Ishwar Kaul’s Kashmiri grammar written in Sanskrit under the title Kashmirashabdamrita is the first milestone in the study of Kashmiri language by a western scholar. It was published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in1897. The grammar was read through by Grierson with Pandit Mukundram, of whose assistance.
he writes, “I am glad to have assistance which I received from so learned and intelligent a co - worker.” Of Ishwar Kaul, says Aurel Stein, he was “the Kashmirian epiphany of Panini.”
In 1898, Grierson learnt that Pandit Ishwar Kaul had also composed a Kosa-the Kashmiri dictionary. After much enquiries and prolonged negotiations Grierson was successful in obtaining the manuscript. This was largely made possible by the rewarding efforts of the then Resident , Kashmir, Sir Adelbret Talbot and Aurel Stein. Accordingly, Grierson put up a proposal for its publication to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in the year 1899, the scheme of which included engaging a competent Kashmiri scholar to prepare the manuscript for the press.
On Aurel Stein’s recommendation the task was entrusted to Pandit Govind Kaul. In placing this arrangement for the successful completion of the work writes, Grierson, “Aurel Stein added one more to the many debts I owe to his kindness by securing for me the services of Pandit Govind Kaul. ”But fate had willed otherwise. Pandit Govind Kaul died soon after, in the same year, causing some delay in the progress of the work which however commenced again when Pandit Mukundram took up the work and continued to work on the dictionary till his death in 1921. There after his death the work on the dictionary for next 11 years was completed by Pandit Nityanand. Preparation of the dictionary was a colossal task begun in 1898 and concluded in 1932. It was a painstaking effort of 34 years of collaboration, between the Pandits of Kashmir and George Grierson, arranged under the skillful hand of Aurel Stein. The publication appeared in 4 volumes, the last of which came in 1932. Acknowledging the valuable contribution of the Kashmiri scholars, writes, Grierson,
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“I also owe a heavy debt of gratitude to Professor Nityanand Shastri of Sri Pratap College, Srinagar for much help in explaining difficult points in Kashmiri idiom and meaning that baffled my unaided knowledge. After the death of my assistant Mahamahopadhyaya Mukundram Shastri, this gentleman placed all the resources of his great learning at my disposal. He even wrote for me a commentary of an ancient Kashmiri work Mahanayaprakasa which I found most valuable in elucidating the history of the language.”
“By the regretted death of Mahamahopadhyaya Mukundram Shastri, I lost a valuable
coadjutor possessed of unique knowledge of his native language in all its forms ancient and modern. It was with him I began my studies in Kashmiri when at the end of the last century he came to me in the hot plains of Patna and spent there many months far from his native land of mountain and snow. After his return home, for more than twenty years he helped me in editing Kashmiri texts and in preparation of this dictionary and before I lost his services he had completed the last slip upon which the latter has been based. It is with genuine sorrow that I recognize that he did not live to see the completed sheets of work on which he spent such fruitful labour.”
(from the Preface of The Dictionary of Kashmiri Language.)
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