ATHENS A Greek professor has shown interest in publishing a Persian-Greek-English dictionary written by a Greek Orientalist in the 18th century of the Christian era. Dimitris Galanos, who went to India at the end of the 18th century, composed two dictionaries, one Sanskrit-Greek-English and the other Persian-Greek-English. His Sanskrit-English-Greek lexicon was published this week in a ceremony organized by the Greek-Indian Association at the Athens University. Professor Karolos Mitsakis of Athens University who worked on the project told IRNA that the manuscript of Galanos' Persian-Greek-English lexicon is lying in two volumes in the National Library of Athens. "I am going to contact the Iranian Cultural Attache here to find out if there are Iranian scholars interested in assisting to publish this highly significant work," Mitsakis told IRNA. He said the manuscript is in good condition and the handwriting of the lexicon is rather clear. Galanos went to Calcutta in 1787 to teach the children of a Greek merchant. After six years he travelled to the Hindu holy city of Banaras (Varnasi) where he learnt Sanskrit and Persian. He died in Banaras about forty years later and is buried there. Persian was the lingua franca during the reign of the Muslim Moghul Empire in India in the 18th century. Galanos, said to be the first Greek Orientalist, also translated a number of Hindu religious works like the Bhagwagita into Greek. The Sanskrit-Greek-English dictionary was published following several years of research involving scholars from both Greece and India.