When India’s thesaurus man gave JLF a world bank of words

“I want to create a World Bank of words”, said journalist-turned-lexicographer Arvind Kumar at the launch of his latest work Shabdveda - an account of his 70 years in the world of words -this afternoon at the Jaipur Literature Festival. 

Shabdveda is the extraordinary journey of India’s thesaurus man, Arvind Kumar. It encompasses his 70-year journey to connect languages not only in India, but also across the world. The book was launched this afternoon by notable poet, lyricist and scriptwriter, Javed Akhtar, who said that words were like human beings. “The way humans are understood by their appearance, words are understood by their sound and it is very important to pronounce and use the words in their correct form,” he said.

The book in 51 articles, narrates Kumar’s life story, his journey through lexicography, journalism, translation, cinema and literature. 

India’s thesaurus man’s journey has been quite interesting. After independence, the government was funding a lot of dictionaries and in 1953, when Kumar saw the Roger Thesaurus, he wondered if that was possible in Hindi. 

Years went by and Kumar who started working as a compositor with Delhi Press at the age of 15, went on to edit several of their magazines and moved to Bombay in the 1970s to become the editor of Madhuri, a film magazine. 

Finally, in the late '70s, he left his job and got deep into researching and creating the first ever Hindi thesaurus. His thesaurus was published by National Book Trust in the 1990s, after twenty years of groundbreaking work. 

In the year 2007, Penguin India and Yatra Books brought out a three-volume Hindi-English, English-Hindi thesaurus/dictionary spanning nearly 3,000 pages and with a database of one million English and Hindi expressions. 

Kumar’s work is a landmark in bilingual lexicography and has been created to help the communities of writers, translators, journalists, copywriters, filmmakers, researchers and students. It celebrates the rich tradition and legacy of lexicography in India. 

It has connected both the languages, Hindi and English in a much more versatile manner. 

Today, Arvind Lexican, his publishing house, is committed to spreading Indian languages across the world and to create world’s largest database of Hindi-English thesaurus. 

Kumar adds, “I am planning many bilingual and mono-lingual thesauruses. Hindi now is seen as a significant medium on international platforms. That is how we live in one world, by connecting ourselves through words. If we have to be powerful in the real sense, we have to connect with the world through words. I am also planning an English-Hindi-Chinese thesaurus, as one day, India and China will come together for a harmonious dialogue.”