(પૂ.મોટા)
(ડૉ.ધીરુભાઈ)
(શ્રી સાંકળચંદ)
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.