I’m excited to have added a feature to the Sanskrit Lexicon app that I had in mind since day one of building this app, but wasn’t able to complete successfully until now!
The problem is that each Sanskrit word has many definitions. The definitions are based on the context of the word. So the same word can have wildly different meanings depending on where you’re reading the word (Mahabharata, Ayurveda, Yoga, Grammar, etc). I tried to solve this problem by grouping the definitions into categories inside the app, but there are obviously other categories that these words can be grouped by (again, depending on the context).
So this is where the magic happens. You can now create custom categories based on the context of your actual search. When you open a word with many definitions, you will now find a “Search by Context” text field, where you can enter your word context. For example, you can now search meanings for the word अग्निः that relate to digestive fire in the Ayurveda text that you are reading:
Once the search is complete, you will get a new custom category section with the definitions that match to your search:
Note that each definition has a percentage match attached to it, showing how much of a match the definition is to the original topic. If you think a definition isn’t a good match for what you’re looking for, you can click “Remove from Category” to delete it and keep only the relevant matches to your context. Note that this only removes the definition from your custom category. It still stays in its original category, so it will still be there! You can also delete the full category by scrolling all the way down and selecting the “Delete Category” button.
Watch how it works in full below!
Hope you are as excited about this unique feature as I am!
Natasha