Nirukta

The opening pages of Yaska's Nirukta Vedanga text (Sanskrit, Devanagari script)

Nirukta (Sanskrit: निरुक्त, IPA: [n̪iɾuktɐ], "explained, interpreted") is one of the six ancient Vedangas, or ancillary science connected with the Vedas – the scriptures of Hinduism.[1][2][3] Nirukta covers etymology, and is the study concerned with correct interpretation of Sanskrit words in the Vedas.[3]

Nirukta is the systematic creation of a glossary and it discusses how to understand archaic, uncommon words.[1] The field grew probably because almost a quarter of words in the Vedic texts composed in the 2nd-millennium BCE appear just once.[2][4][5]

  1. ^ a b Monier Monier-Williams (1923). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. p. vi, 494.
  2. ^ a b James Lochtefeld (2002), "Nirukta" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N–Z, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 0-8239-2287-1, page 476
  3. ^ a b Harold G. Coward 1990, p. 105.
  4. ^ V. S. Apte, A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary, p. 556. Apte gives a nirukta sūtra for the word nirukta itself using a traditional definition as नाम च धातुजमाह निरुत्कं or "Name and root origins are nirukta".
  5. ^ Monier-Williams. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. p. 553.
    Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary. p. 142.