SanDic

SanDic is a small-sized software application that enables you to study the Sanskrit language by consulting a dictionary. Translations are made in English and Russian, and you can find specific words using a feature function.

No setup necessary

There is no installation involved, which makes SanDic portable. Just make sure to download the dictionary database file and place it in the same location as the executable to get it up and running. It's also possible to drop the files on a USB flash drive to run SanDic on any PC without having to launch any installers. What's more, it doesn't modify Windows registry settings.

Simple interface and options

Made from a normal window split into two panes for the index and search, the interface contains a menu bar with several tools and transliteration options.

View word definitions and search for words

You can navigate the dictionary's index and double-click any word to find out its meaning(s). Although the app doesn't implement an option for copying words, you can make a text selection and copy it via the right-click menu or by triggering the Ctrl+C key command.
In order to search for a keyword, all you have to do is type it (the whole word or partially), and hit the Enter key to run the scan. Regular expression mode is possible too. SanDic lists all Sanskrit words whose description contains the keyword in question, so you can scroll the list of results to find out what you're looking for.

Switch from English to Russian

By default, words are translated into English and you can switch to Russian instead. It's also possible to load custom-made CSS styles for the interface, show the main card of a selected word on the screen, as well as explore the multiple transliteration methods available: Hardward-Kyoto, ITRANS 5.3, SLP1 and DevaPicker.

Evaluation and conclusion

The utility worked well in our tests, without hanging, crashing or prompting error messages. It didn't hamper system performance, using low CPU and RAM. The interface needs some improvements in the visual department, though. Otherwise, SanDic offers a simple solution for learning words in the Sanskrit language.