The Abhidhānappadīpikā is a Pali
thesaurus
A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
Synonym dictionar ...
composed in the twelfth century by the
Sri Lankan grammarian Moggallāna Thera. It is based on the Sanskrit thesaurus
''Amarakośa'', and closely follows its style and method.
Like the ''Amarakośa'', the ''Abhidhānappadīpikā'' consists of three parts: celestial objects, terrestrial objects and miscellaneous objects. Each part consists of several sections. The work is a thesaurus or dictionary of synonyms, grouping together the names of a particular thing in verse form for easy memorization.
Commentaries
A commentary was written by a Burmese minister under King Kittisīhasūra around the 14th century. A
Burmese translation was made in the eighteenth century. A paraphrase (''sanna'') and a subcommentary (''ṭīkā'') were composed in Sri Lanka. According to Malalasekera, the sanna is the older and more valuable work.
[''Abhidhānappadīpikā'' in Malalasekera, G. P. ]
Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
' London, 1960.
Editions
''Abhidhānappadīpikā; or, Dictionary of the Pali language'' by Vaskaduve Subhuti, Colombo, 1865, A Sinhala script edition with English explanations. Available o
Archive.org
A fully
romanized edition of this, input by the Sri Lanka Tripitaka Project, is available o
GRETIL
References
{{reflist
Thesauri
Pali literature
History of literature