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Tārānātha Tarkavācaspati, Vācaspatyam (VCP)

The Vācaspatyam is the second of CDSL's great encyclopedic Sanskrit→Sanskrit lexicons, compiled by Tārānātha Tarkavācaspati and published in Calcutta over seven volumes (1873–1884). By raw record count it is the largest dictionary in CDSL. Like the Śabdakalpadruma (SKD) it is monolingual and encyclopedic, but it has a distinct editorial voice: where SKD is quotation-rich (the prior tradition speaks through the entries), VCP is synthesis-rich — Tārānātha explains in his own words, quoting only where a direct citation matters.

At a glance​

CodeVCP (GitHub repo VCP)
Full titleVācaspatyam ("the work of Vācaspati")
EditorTārānātha Tarkavācaspati
Year / sizeCalcutta 1873–1884 · 7 volumes (the largest CDSL dictionary by record count)
DirectionSanskrit → Sanskrit (monolingual, encyclopedic)
Sourcecsl-orig/v02/vcp/
OpenBasic · List · Advanced · Mobile
DataDownloads · Scans
Front mattervcppref.rst
Profilecsl-atlas VCP profile — the structural and iti-citation analysis this page draws on
csl-docvcp.rst

When to use it​

Reach for VCP when you want extended encyclopedic treatment of a term in Sanskrit — especially philosophical, grammatical, and śāstric vocabulary, which Tārānātha discusses at length. Use it alongside SKD: SKD will show you what the prior kośa tradition said (with quotations); VCP will give you a synthesised exposition. For an English gloss, cross-read Monier-Williams (MW). As with SKD, the entire entry is in Sanskrit.

Reading an entry​

VCP shares SKD's prose form — no <lex> grammar tags, no <ls> citation tags — but quotes more sparingly: its inline iti <source> citations run about 0.26 per record, a sixth of SKD's rate. Many VCP entries are encyclopedic prose without quotation, with named sources reserved for direct citation. The opening of the entry for a (csl-orig/v02/vcp/vcp.txt, trimmed):

<L>2<pc>0035,a<k1>a<k2>a
a¦ avya0 ava--prIRanAdO qa svarAdipAWAdavyayatvam . aBAve, pratizeDe svalpe'rTe
anukampAyAM, samboDane, a ananta! . aDikzepe, a pacasi tvaM jAlma! …
“upasargasvaraviBaktipratirUpakASceti” … iti sidDAntakOmudyAm udAhftaM …
<LEND>
In the sourceMeaning
a¦ avya0headword a, then avya0 = avyaya (indeclinable), abbreviated in the prose
aBAve, pratizeDe, svalpe'rTe, …the senses, in the locative (absence, prohibition, "in a slight sense", …)
a ananta!, a pacasi tvaM jAlma!usage examples worked into the prose
iti sidDAntakOmudyAma source named in prose — the Siddhānta-kaumudī

What makes it distinctive​

  • The largest CDSL dictionary by record count (~50,000 entries).
  • Synthesis over quotation. The same iti apparatus as SKD, but used sparingly — the editor's exposition carries the entry. This is a different editorial philosophy within the same Sanskrit→Sanskrit genre.
  • Strong on śāstra. Philosophical, grammatical, and technical vocabulary is treated at encyclopedic length.
  • Genre boundary. Like SKD, its prose apparatus means tag-based tooling does not transfer — see the csl-atlas VCP profile.

See also​