Lexicography, the practice of dictionary making, has all along been accorded a significant place in language studies. In Indian, Greco-Roman, Middle-Eastern as well as Chinese traditions of language studies we find dictionaries and glossaries – monolingual as well as bi- and tri-lingual, general as well as technical-being prepared and used extensively from ancient times. Nighạt and Nirukta are monumental examples of early Indian efforts in this area. Since then a vast number of dictionaries and glossaries have been prepared in India in sanskritic as well as Pali-Prakrit Apabhramsa periods. Some of them are general purpose dictionaries like Amarakosa, some others are partial ones like deśīnāma-mālā and still others like dhātupśţhas and gaņapāţhas and glossaries follow different criteria and bases-semantic as wsll as alphabetic - in their format and presentation

Although this rich India lexicographical tradition was inherited by modern Indian languages, very litter attention to lexicographical work was paid in mediaeval times in India. The advent of European scholars-missionaries as well as non-missionaries – helped tremendously in revitalising the Indian lexicographical work.

These scholars either independently or with the help of Indian scholars produced bi-lingual as well as tri-lingual dictionaries for various Indian languages. All these works followed, for the most part, the European tradition for dictionary making and hte format of presentation and the composition and order of entries were more or less modelled after dictionaries produced in the West. During the last two hundred years, one rarely finds a dictionary like Amarakosa which follows a semantic basis for its presentation.

After Indian independence in 1947 modern Indian languages have been called upon to perform many such tasks and roles in which they were not used earlier. Most of the Indian languages, at least the major ones, attest a rich literary tradition, but their use in various domains of life mainly utilitarian ones, is primarily a post independence development. Hence, governmental as well as voluntary activity for the development of Indian languages so that they may satisfactorily fulfill the roles they are required to, is being undertaken in a phased manner since independence. Identification of lexical gaps and efforts to fill them represent major developments in this direction. This aspect of language planning is as much a linguistic and socio-linguistic problem as a lexicographical one.

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, established in 1969 is primarily concerned with the development of Indian languages in all their aspects to suit the present needs of language communication. As lexicons play a vital role in the standardization and modernization of a language, it was considered necessary to survey the lexicographical work done in the field of Indian languages, to assess future demands and to formulate appropriate schemes to bridge the gaps between available resources and current as well as future demands. A national conference on dictionary making in Indian languages was, therefore, convened by the Institute in March 1970 in which established lexicographers from most of the major Indian languages participated, presented critical surveys of lexicons prepared in their respective languages, projected future needs and made suggestions on undertaking schemes for implementing such projects which will help in fulfilling the demands being made upon these languages. As the conference generated deep and abiding concern at the lack of lexicographical work in Indian languages and scholars – participants and others alike – evinced interest in it by inquiring about its publication , it was decided to publish the papers presented in the conference and also the results of the deliberations of the various sessions of the conference. The conference proceedings were edited in 1976, but due to various reasons, administrative, official and also my moving from CIIL, Mysore to CIH, Delhi and then Agra, the publication has been delayed upto this time. Inspite of the fact that the papers included in the present time. Inspite of the fact that the papers included in the present volume were written in 1970 and they, naturally, cover the developments only upto that point of time, not much change has taken place in the present decade in the lexicographical field in Indian languages and these papers have as much relevance today as they had when presented. Not only has the need for a comprehensive plan for the preparation of mono-lingual as well as bi-lingual lexicons in various Indian languages assumed greater urgency by this time, it has became imperative that work in this area be delayed no further. It can now be postponed only at the cost of impairing effective and vital language communication in the country. As a linguist concerned with problems of lexicography, an important area of applied linguistics, as a researcher in the field of language communication, and, also, as the editor of the present volume, I hop that the papers in this volume, will be of use to lexicographers language scholars and language planners alike and that our country, will witness an upsurge in lexicographical activity in not too distant further. I must thank Dr. D.P. Pattanayak, Director, CIIL, for assigning the task of editing this Conference Volume and rendering me help in various ways. I am also thankful to Dr. Ramadhar Singh, a young linguist-lexicographer who has helped me in checking bibliographical references and citations and in proof reading the papers. Last but not the least I am thankful to Sri. H.L.N. Bharati, Publications-in-charge, CIIL, and the staff of the printing units of Bhashyam Printers, Bangalore for seeing the work through the press.

B.G. MISRA