Dr Dimitrov may have pointed out recently the debt of MW to PW, but this is not new; a paper from long ago has been cited on this list before, in which the exact situation is investigated in detail: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/lexi.1988.4.issue-1/9783110244083.145/9783110244083.145.xml

No doubt, Dr Dimitrov did not point to anything new, which, as far as I see, neither he nor anyone else has claimed, though. The point is rather that Monier-Williams's factual dependance on Böhtlingk's (and Roth's) dictionaries is not generally known among indologists, as it seems, or, it is ignored or considered irrelevant, or it is even disputed, in the latter case usually under reference to Zgusta's 1988 paper, which seems to be taken as the final word in this matter. However, a closer look at his article shows that this is far from being correct, for the paper actually suffers from serious flaws. I shall not elaborate on that here, but I do intend to speak about the same issue on the "33. Deutscher Orientalistentag" (DOT) in Jena in September 2017 (http://www.dot2017.de/).

As Prof. Slaje already mentioned today, a relevant article by Agnes Stache-Weiske appeared recently which is worth reading ("Man muß zuweilen Insekten mit Kanonen schießen." Max Müllers Rolle im Streit zwischen Böhtlingk und Monier-Williams, in:  "In ihrer rechten Hand hielt sie ein Messer mit Glöckchen ... ". "In her right hand she held a silver knife with small bells ...". Studien zur indischen Kultur und Literatur. Studies in Indian Culture and Literature. Herausgegeben von / Edited by Anna Aurelia Esposito, Heike 0berlin, B. A. Viveka Rai, Karin Juliana Steiner. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2015, pp. 323-336.

In this article Stache-Weiske quotes, among other interesting documents, a letter by Ernst Leumann to Otto Böhtlingk (dated 21.9.1883). Leumann has been Monier-Williams's first collaborator and longtime assistant (cp. MW's title page: "With the collaboration of E. Leumann, C. Cappeller"). The passage quoted by Stache-Weiske (pp. 313 f.) says:

"Es ist nicht ohne ziemliche Beklemmung, daß ich Ihnen den eben erst abgedruckten ersten Bogen des neuen Wörterbuchs zukommen laße. [...] in der Meinung, daß Sie ein erstes Recht darauf haben zu erfahren, wie man sich bestrebt Ihr Wörterbuch in England & Indien nutzbar zu machen, und thue es nicht bloß im Gefühl der größten Dankbarkeit sondern wirklich auch der tiefsten Pflicht, wie sie eben nur die Abhängigkeit von einem so immensen Werke wie das Ihrige einflößen kann.“

("It is not without a strong feeling of trepidation that I send you the first sheet of the new dictionary [i.e. MW] printed just now [...] in the opinion that you have the first right to learn how one endeavours to make usable your dictionary in England and India. And this I do not only with a feeling of most sincere gratitude, but also of most profound duty really which can be instilled only by the dependance on such an immense work like yours.")

Best, Roland Steiner

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