On the Use of the Dictionary:
An effort has been made to avoid repetition
as far as possible. Generally speaking, the information appearing
under any particular word should not, therefore, be regarded
as complete until reference has also been made to the words
given in that article in Clarendon type. There has been
a certain amount of unavoidable confusion in the arrangement
of words beginning with the Pali equivalent for the prefix meaning
"junior," as opposed to Mahā. Reference should be made under
all three heads, Cūla, and Culla, before the search for a word
is abandoned. There is also lack of uniformity in the texts
regarding the use of the prefix Mahā. Sometimes it is an integral
part of the word, sometimes merely an honorific. It is necessary,
therefore, to look—e.g., under both Sangharakkhita and Mahā~
- before the list of possible Sangharakkhita's is exhausted.
Potential trouble also lurks with regard to the hyphen. Generally
speaking, the names of Jātakas and Suttas are given without
a hyphen— e.g., Kapi Jātaka, Kavi Sutta—and these words follow
the usual order. Thus Kapi Sutta is given before Kapiţţha
and Kavi Sutta before Kaviţţhavana.
Where a word is hyphened, either because it is a true compound
or merely for convenience, it is regarded as a single word.
The presence or absence of a hyphen affects the order, and a
certain amount of circumspection is, therefore, requested in
looking for compound names, or those that appear to be so. The
regnal years given for the rulers' of Ceylon are taken from
the chronological table in Geiger's Translation of the Cūlavamsa,
Vol. II., pp. ix-xv, and should be regarded as only provisional.
A.C. = After Christ. To preserve all diacritics is impossible
without use of special fonts. Words should thus be searched
for both with and without diacritics.
