Assam: Jayanta Baruah receives Guinness World Record certificate for ‘Hemkosh’

Guwahati (Assam) [India], May 2 (ANI): The publisher of ‘Hemkosh’ and chairman of Pratidin Media Network Jayanta Baruah received the Guinness World Records certificate of ‘largest bilingual braille dictionary’ from Rishi Nath, official adjudicator for Guinness World Records on the occasion of the 127th death anniversary of ‘Bhaxar Oja’ Hemchandra Baruah on Monday.

The Guinness World Records official certificate presentation ceremony of Hemkosh’s Braille Edition ‘largest bilingual braille dictionary’ was held at the Birinchi Kumar Baruah (BKB) Auditorium, Gauhati University.
He received the certificate in the presence of Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria and several other noted personalities including the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Gauhati University, Professor Pratap Jyoti Handique, Pijus Hazarika, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Dr Bhartendu Pandey, Professor of Department of Sanskrit, Delhi University, Basanta Goswami, amongst other distinguished personalities, academicians, journalists, and socio-cultural organizational leaders.

Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Gauhati University VC, Professor Pratap Jyoti Handique lauded the efforts of Jayanta Baruah.

Meanwhile, Jayanta Baruah thanked the entire team for Hemkosh’s Braille dictionary and expressed his gratitude towards Pijus Hazarika, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, and also the Commissioner, Manager and staff of government Braille Press for extending their invaluable support.

He also thanked the entire support staff who tirelessly worked for the dictionary and for the tabulation for Guinness World Records, including visually impaired proofreaders.

It is worth mentioning that, world record holder, Hemkosh’s braille edition, is the ‘largest bilingual braille dictionary’ with 90,640 words printed in 21 volumes and 6 parts, across 10,279 pages weighing 80.800 kgs.

The braille edition 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 the 14th edition, and were compiled and edited by late Debananda Baruah.

The 15th edition of the ‘Hemkosh’ Dictionary has been compiled under the leadership of Jayanta Baruah and is under production.

Jayanta Baruah, in a bid to continue the ‘Hemkosh’ legacy, as the grandson of late Hemchandra Baruah, conceptualized, and published the Braille edition of ‘Hemkosh’.

Notably, this Braille version of Hemkosh would be the first full language dictionary in Braille, after Oxford, the release stated.

Jayanta Baruah has donated (free of cost), the dictionary copies to all the educational institutions for the visually impaired students, universities, state and central libraries, as well as the national library.

Moreover ‘Hemkosh’ is the first etymological dictionary of the Assamese language and is bilingual in nature, thus children can benefit in both English and Assamese languages from the dictionary”.

On September 16, 2022, ‘Hemkosh’ was formally launched at the Vivekananda Kendra, Guwahati in the presence of then Assam Governor Professor Jagdish Mukhi and the publisher of Hemkosh Prakashan and chairman of Pratidin Media Network Jayanta Baruah.

Earlier on September 21, 2022, Baruah officially presented the first copy of the Hemkosh Braille Dictionary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the release stated.