1. The Institutional Background-Among the makers and liberators of modern India, it was Svamı Dayananda Sarasvati who first declared, unequivocally, that 'even the best foreign government would be but a poor substitute for our own government.' He, however, knew that a thoroughly national government could be established and maintained for long by those alone who while they understood and were inspired by the highest idealism and most brilliant record of achievement, cultural as well as material, of their forefathers of yore, also welcomed and imbibed in their life the best that the modern West with its wonderful zest for progress in letters and learning as well as science and technology had to offer. This double emphasis on our national heritage as represented by Sanskrit and all that it stood for, on the one hand, and on modern arts and sciences, on the other, which so prominently marked the soulstirring lead that he gave to his countrymen, became a living emblem of the Dayananda Anglo-Vedic College which, after the great teacher had passed away in 1883, was started in his memory at Lahore in 1886.
Naturally, this institution, more than any other of its type, took special interest in the advancement of Sanskrit studies. Realizing that the course of reading in Sanskrit as prescribed by the Education Department and the University of Panjab was not quite enough, the College tried to supplement the same as much as it could. However, not satisfied with this much, it set up, in 1899, a special department of Sanskrit which was eventually merged in Dayananda Brahma Mahavidyalaya, a full-fledged independent Sanskrit, Hindi and Divinity College, awarding its own Diplomas and Degrees that the D.A.-V. College Management started, in 1921, with the present writer as the Founder-Principal. The same Management had already established, in 1917, under the Headship of Shri Bhagavad Datta, the D.A.-V. College Research Department along with the Rai Bahadur Lal Chand Memorial Library to carry on and provide facilities for research in Sanskrit language and literature and, also, in Indian History.
Recognising the unique position of the Vedas by virtue of their being the most ancient available sacred writings of the world and, also, their special importance in the eyes of their countrymen, being the fountain-head of their language, literature, religion, philosophy and culture, the late Svami Vishveshvarananda and his junior life-long colleague, the late Brahmacharı Nityananda, (both of whom had imbibed the teachings of Svami Dayananda), so much felt the absence of a comprehensive and dependable Vedic Lexicon, that they took it upon themselves, in 1903, as the sole mission of their lives of devotion and dedication, to supply this great need. Soon after that, they established their headquarters, known as Shantakuti, at Simla where they set themselves to work in right earnest on their lexicographical scheme. During the triennium, 1908-1910, they published, in four separate volumes, the alphabetically re-arranged Padapathas (Word Indices) to the four principal Vedic texts, namely, (1) Rgveda (Sakala), (2) Yajurveda (Madhyandina), (3) Samaveda (Kauthuma), and (4) Atharvaveda (Saunaka). When the scheme was being thus assiduously pursued by the two savants, its further progress was unfortunately checked on account of the untimely demise of Brahmachari Nityananda, in 1914. Svami Vishveshvarananda, however, carried on as best as he could with the cooperation of a few other scholars for another decade at the end of which he felt that the scheme was not progressing well and, also, that being now seventy-three (73) years old, he could no longer cope with it. During the latter half of the year 1923 which he spent at Lahore, he laid his scheme before Rai Bahadur Lala Mul Raj and Mahatma Hans Raj, the two veteran leaders of Arya Samaja and sought their co-operation in finding some one who might relieve his aged shoulders of the burden of the
scheme and carry it forward to the best of his ability. It was in this situation that the present writer in compliance with the wishes of the said venerable personages undertook as a labour of love to carry on the work of the Vedic Lexicon, and opened on January 1, 1924 its office, since known as Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, on the premises of the said Brahma Mahavidyalaya. When, later on, on June 1, 1934, he laid down the charge of the Mahavidyalaya and became the Director of the said D. A.-V. College Research Department and Lalchand Library, the office of the Institute was shifted from the Mahavidyalaya to Lalchand Library. Since then, the D. A.-V. College Research Department and the V. V. R. Institute, even though run by different corporate bodies, have for all practical purposes been integrated into one institution which, after the Partition of Panjab, in 1947, most wonderfully and fortunately succeeded in shifting itself almost intact from Lahore to Hoshiarpur.
All praise to our brave and devoted workers who voluntarily stayed on at Lahore for many months after the Partition and devised ways and means of carrying across the border, piece by piece, the administrative and academic records, the libraries and the laboratories belonging to the Institute and the College and weighing, altogether, nothing less than 4,000 maunds. They pursued this arduous task, most doggedly and fearlessly, in the face of the ban which the Pakistan Government had imposed in this behalf and of all sorts of other risks. Verily, it was nothing short of a miracle that they gained their objective so well. The Institute is proud of them, for in the absence of the most valuable materials that they thus extracted, practically, from the jaws of usurpation and destruction, it would have been simply impossible to restart its work. Similarly, the D. A.-V. College which has been restarted at Ambala is very happy thereby to have the unique privilege, among all the old educational institutions which were dislocated from West Pakistan and have since been re started in Bharata, of still possessing intact its old library as well as laboratories.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
Astrology (115)
Ayurveda (106)
Gita (76)
Hinduism (1356)
History (143)
Language & Literature (1743)
Learn Sanskrit (26)
Mahabharata (29)
Performing Art (69)
Philosophy (453)
Puranas (117)
Ramayana (49)
Sanskrit Grammar (256)
Sanskrit Text Book (32)
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