The Braille edition of Assamese dictionary Hemkosh, with 90,640 words in 10,279 pages, has been adjudged as the largest bilingual Braille dictionary by the Guinness World Records.
Jayanta Baruah, publisher of Hemkosh and chairman of Pratidin Media Network, received the Guinness World Records certificate from Rishi Nath, official adjudicator for Guinness World Records TM, in presence of Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria at an event held in Gauhati University on Monday, according to a press release.
The Braille edition of the Assamese dictionary has 90,640 words printed in 21 volumes and 6 parts, across 10,279 pages and weighing 80.800 kg.
It is the adaption of Hemkosh’s 14th edition’s regular dictionary.
The first Assamese language dictionary Hemkosh was compiled by late Hemchandra Baruah in the last part of the 19th century and was published four years later after his demise.
The subsequent editions of the dictionary were published by the next generations of his family, particularly from the fourth edition to 14th editions were compiled and edited by late Debananda Baruah. The 15th edition of Hemkosh has been compiled under the leadership of Jayanta Baruah and is under production.
Notably, this Braille version of Hemkosh would be the first full language dictionary in Braille, after Oxford.
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Baruah has donated the dictionary copies free of cost to all the educational institutions for the visually impaired students, universities, state and central libraries, as well as the national library.
It was formally launched in Guwahati on 16 September 2022 and on 21 September 2022, Baruah presented the first copy of Hemkosh Braille dictionary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Modi also lauded the initiative on the 93rd episode of Mann Ki Baat on 23 September 2022.
Honoured to witness Adarniya PM Shri @narendramodi ji being presented with a copy of Braille edition of iconic Assamese dictionary ‘Hemkosh’ by Sadin Pratdin Group Chairman Shri Jayanta Baruah in presence of Hon’ble Union Minister Shri @sarbanandsonwal. pic.twitter.com/l9TbultGwC
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 21, 2022
