Words that Count

Titled Krishijnanakosh,the interesting tale behind the name goes like this- “When I told my father,the idea of compiling such a book,he told me to name it- Jnanakosh- meaning encyclopedia instead of Vidnyanakosh- meaning scientific dictionary. The expanse of the word- knowledge is far beyond the word- science. And after all,science is a part of knowledge he said isn’t it,” says Joshi who has already finished compiling five out of the total 15 volumes that he plans to come up with.

Coming from a literary background,research and compilation of agriculture related terminology was something that came up accidentally in Joshi’s life. “My mother was an active participant of the freedom struggle and after four years of imprisonment with the Portuguese government,when she returned to Pune,we purchased this three acres of plot in Dhayari near Pune. During those days,we planted as many as 75 coconut trees,150 Custard apple plants in our garden. Gardening was very much a hobby and publication of our fathers books remained our prime source of income,” says Joshi as he adds,”One day,when I went into the garden,I noticed that the size of coconuts grown in the garden had reduced drastically. We were putting regular fertiliser feeds,and there seemed no reason as to why the coconuts shrunk. After referring to some of the books regarding the issue,I realised that the way we were putting fertilizers was incorrect. While corrections followed instantaneously,I was swayed by the fascinating world of agriculture,” smiles he.

And the passion went beyond just turning Joshi into a voracious reader of agricultural books. Instead,it made him realise that he could act as a mediator and reach out to millions of farmers in this nation,who make this country an agricultural land. “I did not want to keep the compilation limited to terminology related to agriculture. I wanted it to be the encyclopedia,to which every farmer in this country could refer to,” adds he.

Every volume is thus dedicated to various topics — divided into three indices– terminology,dictionary that provides parallel words in minimum 17 languages across the globe and human diseases and remedial plants on respective diseases. “For instance,if we take the word- onion,there are as many as 92 synonyms for onion in various languages. Further,the volume provides information such as- plantation of onion,Ayurvedic importance of onion,types of onions and so on. While currently this information is available in marathi,we soon plan to venture into various other languages,” says Joshi.

In the first ever attempt in Marathi,some of the topics such as- Fungi,Orchids meaning flowering plants,Enzymes have been dealt with for the first time claims Joshi. “Besides,we have also come up with Bruhannighantu- a book dedicated completely to medicinal recipes in Ayurveda. The structure of the book goes like this- there are over 9000 recipes of various Ayurvedic medicines listed in the book. What follows this section is the list of illnesses and in front of each illness,the serial number of medicinal recipe that offers remedy to the illness is listed,” adds he.

With a positive response from the target reader- the farmer,satisfaction for Joshi is the continuation of his association with encyclopedias,a legacy that his father gifted him with.