An Ocean of Gems is dedicated to Dr Dhanesh Jain (1939–2019), distinguished scholar of Indian sociolinguistics and founder of Ratna Sagar, parent company of Primus Books. He was also a dedicated academic and co-editor, with George Cardona, of The Indo-Aryan Languages, a seminal reference work on the subject. As a publisher, Dhanesh Jain was an inspiration to authors and readers, tirelessly advocating and pragmatically supporting the Indian academic publishing industry with highcalibre academic reference books and Indological scholarship. As a scholar and reviewer for major presses, he recognized the urgent need for such a publishing enterprise in the humanities and social sciences, particularly in the discipline of South Asian languages. To this day, Primus Books provides a viable alternative publishing platform to academics globally.

This memorial volume of essays by prominent scholars of Indian languages and linguistics aims not only to honour Dhanesh Jain but also hopes to encourage those who pursue his footsteps in scholarship, editing, or publishing to maintain the purity of purpose and ceaseless efforts necessary to ensure that the best of humanistic knowledge about South Asia is preserved for posterity in India and across the world.

Content:

Introduction by Deven M. Patel

1. On the Methodology of Grammarians of Prakrits and of Pali by George Cardona
2. Wave Dynamics and the Formation of Hindi-Urdu by Joshua H. Pien
3. ‘Sporadic’ Sound Change in Hindi Phonology: Some Observations by Michael Shapiro
4. Multilinguality and Redundant ‘Compounds’ by Rama Kant Agnihotri
5. Hindi–Urdu’s Ghalib Construction: Paired Verbs in the Expression of Incapacity by Peter Edwin Hook
6. Threat of English as a Killer Language by Surendra Gambhir
7. The Culture and Politics of Coaching by Krishna Kumar
8. Making Less-common Dictionaries Searchable Online: A Case History of a ‘Bottom-up’ Digital Humanities

Project by Gil Ben-Herut

 Notes on Editor and Contributors