The Purnachandra Oriya Bhashakosha is a monumental 7-volume work of about 9,500 pages published between 1930 and 1940. It was a result of the vision and dedicated work of Gopal Chandra Praharaj (1874–1945) over nearly three decades. Praharaj not only conceived of and compiled the work, he also raised the finances to print it through public donations, grants and subscriptions and supervised the printing and the sales of the published work.
The Purnachandra Oriya Bhashakosha is an Oriya language dictionary that lists some 185,000 words and their meanings in four languages - Oriya, English, Hindi and Bengali. It includes quotations from wide-ranging classical works illustrating the special usage of various words. It also contains specialised information such as botanical names of local plants, information on astronomy and long articles on various topics of local interest. In addition, there are biographies of personalities connected with Odisha’s history and culture.
The Purnachandra Oriya Bhashakosha is an encyclopaedic work touching on various aspects of the Oriya language and Odisha region, as well as many topics of general interest. Its author Praharaj was a lawyer by profession and was ridiculed and reviled by many during production itself. Many printed copies were destroyed unbound and unsold. Many copies sat in libraries of the princes who had patronised the work and most of these copies were sold cheaply when the princes met financial ruin. There are few surviving copies, and those that exist are fragile and worm-damaged. The work is regarded by the older generation, but not well-known among younger Oriyas.
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