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Using the Website

The CDSL front page at sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de lists every dictionary grouped by language pair. Each dictionary row exposes a compact set of single-letter links. This page explains what those links mean and how to get from the front page to a headword. (New here? Start with the Quick Start.)

The CDSL front page: dictionaries grouped by language pair (Sanskrit-English, English-Sanskrit, …), each row showing its code, date, title, and the B L A M D S link strip

The front-page link codes​

Each dictionary is presented with a short code (e.g. MW, AP90, PWG) and a row of single-letter actions:

CodeActionNotes
BBasic displaySingle-word lookup, clean reading view
LList displayBrowse/scroll headwords as a list
AAdvanced searchSearch within entry body, wildcards, regex-style options
MMobileMobile-friendly responsive interface
DDownloadsXML (SLP1), PDF, and data packages
S¹Scans (PDF)Original scanned pages as PDF
S²Scans (JPG)Original scanned pages as JPG

Some dictionaries add extra links (e.g. Markup notes, or Inflected forms for Monier-Williams). The exact set per dictionary is reflected live in the catalog — greyed letters there mean that action is not offered.

URL patterns

For a dictionary with scan code {CODE} (e.g. MW), the actions resolve to: base = /scans/{CODE}Scan/2020/web/

  • B {base}webtc/indexcaller.php · L {base}webtc1/index.php
  • A {base}webtc2/index.php · M {base}mobile1/index.php
  • D {base}webtc/download.html
  • S¹ /scans/{CODE}Scan/index.php?sfx=pdf · S² …?sfx=jpg

A typical lookup​

  1. Pick a dictionary from the front page (e.g. Monier-Williams, code MW / internal MWS).
  2. Click B (Basic) to open the single-word view.
  3. Type a headword. You can enter it in several transliteration schemes — see Encoding & Transliteration.
  4. The entry renders with cross-references (<ls> literary-source links, lexical tags) live-linked where available.

Which display mode should I use?​

  • Basic (B) — you know the word and want to read its entry.
  • List (L) — you want to browse alphabetically or confirm a headword's spelling.
  • Advanced (A) — you want to search inside entries (e.g. find every entry that cites a particular text, or contains a phrase).
  • Mobile (M) — same content, phone-friendly layout.

See Search & Display for the details of each mode, and Tools for cross-dictionary search.

Getting the data instead of reading online​

Every dictionary can be downloaded as XML (SLP1) and PDF, and the original scanned editions are available page by page. See Downloads & Data and Scans & Print.