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વિશ્વકોશ ગ્રંથો |
If man requires food, clothing and
shelter for his physical existence, he requires
knowledge for his mental or intellectual
existence. Much of this knowledge can be
obtained by man through what is called the
general purpose encyclopaedia. The Western world
had prepared and developed the general purpose
encyclopaedia more than a century ago and also it
kept on refining the process by introducing a
variety in it with specialization in each field
of art, literature, science, technology etc.
In India, Bengal was the first to
make an attempt at that in 1886, to be followed
by other regional languages like Marathi. A few
attempts were also made to prepare an
encyclopaedia in the Gujarati language, too, but
unfortunately those attempts did not make much
headway.
This lacuna was deeply felt by the
Gujarati people with the formation of a separate
linguistic state of Gujarat in the year 1960.
Gujarat has very rich culture and tradition, its
language and literature too are highly
developed, there is no dearth of people who want
to enrich this knowledge, there is no shortage
of resources required for preparing and
publishing a general purpose encyclopaedia in the
Gujarati language. What was required was the
motivation and inspiration for it. That moment
of motivation and inspiration came in the year
1985 when a Trust was formed which has been
motivated and dedicated to this noble cause.
The Trust hopes that this project
would not only fulfill the long standing need
and desire of the people of Gujarat to have an
encyclopaedia in their own language, but would
also help in the enrichment of their cultural
and intellectual life.
Purpose: To prepare and to publish
a general purpose encyclopaedia (Vishwakosh) in
the Gujarati language; to undertake allied,
identical and similar activities with a view to
disseminate information and spread knowledge
through appropriate means and media in Gujarat
and elsewhere in the Gujarati language. |
