Source:  The Telegraph, Calcutta

Orissa’s largest non-fiction work and first lexicon got a new lease of life with reprints appearing in the market for the first time in 70 years. Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha, the monumental lexicon made up of seven volumes in 9,000-odd pages, has been republished by Orissa-based Lark Books and is priced at Rs 700.

Gopal Chandra Praharaj, a Cuttack lawyer and journalist, had spent more than 17 years from 1913 to compile the seven volumes with inputs from Pitambari Devi, Chandra Sekhar Mishra, Pandit Kulamani Dash, Kavya Tirtha and Pandit Rama Chandra Rath. The lexicon covered 1.85 lakh words with multi-lingual synonyms (Bengali, Hindi and English), explanatory notes and word history. Utkal Sahitya Press in Cuttack printed and published all seven volumes in September 1931, while the last volume appeared in 1940.

Considered an Oriya treasure trove, the original set of Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha went into obscurity in subsequent years. While much of the printed copies were destroyed unbound and unsold the copies that survived were rare and not accessible for the public.