AMARAKOŚA (112), Samkīrṇa (421), Nānārtha (257), Avyaya (23) and Lingādisamgraha (47). The title Nämalinganuśāsanam is significant, for it is a work treating of names of objects, as well as their genders'. Among lexicons of earlier writers, some like Utpalini give only the words, some like the work of Vararuci deal only with genders, but here both are together.' 1 It is well known that the determination of the gender of words in Sanskrit requires a special study and hence a guide like the Ak. is indispensable even at the early stages of instruction. Hence the mastery of this lexicon is ordained at a very early stage when a student commences his studies. xxiv Amara lays down the rules of interpretation at the begin- ning of his work and the devices that are employed for securing brevity. They are firstly to bring together all the available lexicons of his day, such as those of Katya, Vyādi and Bhāguri.² The second stage is the selection of words suitable to a concise dictionary (samkşiptaih). He had necessarily to use his dis- crimination and delete a large number of aprasiddha words. As he says at the end of the second Kāṇḍa, when certain words are given in the text in a gender that is well known, the forms in other genders can be easily made out, and it is un- necessary to increase the bulk of the volume by their separate inclusion. उक्ता भूरिप्रयोगत्वादेकस्मिन् येऽत्र यौगिकाः । ताद्धर्म्यादन्यतो वृत्तावूह्या लिङ्गान्तरेऽपि ते ॥ (p. 647) The third stage consists in setting them in proper order, so that the non-essentials are left out and the arrangement 1 The Amaramandana of Krsņasuri, ed. V. Raghavan, Poona 1949, Introd. p. 17. 2 अन्यतन्त्राणि व्याडिवररुचिप्रभृतीनां तन्त्राणि, समाहृत्य एकीकृत्य । अत एव संपूर्णमिदम्, यतस्त्रिकाण्डोत्पलिन्यादीनि नाममात्रतन्त्राणि, व्याडिवररुच्यादिप्रणीतानि तु लिङ्गमात्रतन्त्राणि । Ak, TSS 38, I, p. 3.
