13.4 References and Abbreviations On page xxxiii of the Introduction is the List of Works and Authors that Monier- Williams has consulted in compiling the dictionary: look for a few works that you know to see how it is abbreviated in the body of the dictionary, for example, Bhag. for Bhagavad-gTta and MBh. for MahaBharata. The next page of the dictionary has a list of symbols that are used: read through and understand these. The last four symbols are not very clear, but will be elucidated in the next section. The following page of the dictionary lists the abbreviations that are used. Make it a discipline to look up the references (when appropriate) and abbreviations (always) when you are not sure what it stands for — this way you will very soon become familiar with them. 13.5 Special Symbols ° and A^AA The little circle (°) is a standard abbreviation symbol in the devanagarT script to denote either the first or last part of a word that has to be supplied from the context. Monier- Williams also uses this symbol to abbreviate English words in order to save space. As an illustration of its use, if the word 'conscious' is under discussion, rather than repeat the word in full, the abbreviation con° or even c° may be used; similarly °ly would mean consciously, and °ness, consciousness. The caret symbols denote a joining of vowels, short or long. These are used in the transliterated script for samasa (compound words), and very helpfully indicate the length of the final and initial vowels at the point of union, so that the words may readily be looked up separately: ^ denotes the joining of two short vowels, as a + a => a, denotes the joining of a short with a long vowel, as a + a => a, ^ denotes the joining of a long with a short vowel, as a + a => a, denotes the joining of two long vowels, as a + a => a. These are also used when the rules of sandhi change the vowel sound, e.g. a + i => e, a + u => o etc. 13.6 Significance of Hyphen and Caret Symbols Turning again to page 733 column two, find the samasa listed under Buddha beginning with -kapalinT and -kalpa: the hyphen not only indicates that the word
