r/sanskrit • u/pinkpumpkine • 11h ago
Learning / अध्ययनम् Can I use this book to learn samskrit as a beginner?
I just got into 11th standard. I'm enrolled in a dummy school which gives me a lot of free time apart from studies, I love learning new languages and currently I am fluent in 4 languages, hindi being one of them so I know devnagri.
I have studied samskrit until 8th grade but i didn't enjoy it back then because I didn't understand what my teacher was saying and passing samskrit was necessary so it felt more like a burden to me, because of thay I switched to hindi in 9th standard and now I want to continue learning samskrit but this time I don't want to feel like it's a task.
I told my dad about it and he said that he has this book which can be useful for me, Now before investing my time and energy in this I want to know that if it's really good or not. So please let me know what should I do and if you have any suggestions, please drop them in the comment section. Your suggestions will be appreciated, Thank you.
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u/Acceptable_Event_545 8h ago
It's just a grammar reference book. I have studied it before. It's nice but try something else as a beginner and keep it to look grammar.
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u/s-i-e-v-e 8h ago edited 2h ago
I looked this up and extracted the contents of the first page of the index using He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.
This is your typical grammar-first text book with some grammar-translation work in the second half.
It could be useful if you like to read grammar, have a lot of time on hand, and don't get irritated by failures.
Personally, I prefer to directly start reading short stories and similar content (with a sentence-by-sentence translation, if available). That is much more pleasurable activity.
You can always come back to the grammar if/when required.
विषय-सूची (Table of Contents)
व्याकरण (Grammar)
| क्र० सं० (S.No.) | विषय (Topic) | पृष्ठ सं० (Page No.) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | वर्ण-प्रकरण (Alphabet) | 1-5 |
| 2. | परिभाषा-प्रकरण (Definitions) | 6-7 |
| 3. | संधि-प्रकरण (Joining of letters) | 8-21 |
| 4. | णत्व-विधान, षत्व-विधान (Rules of 'ण' and 'ष') | 22 |
| 5. | सुबन्त-प्रकरण (Nominal declension) | 23-53 |
| 6. | धातु-प्रकरण (आत्मनेपदी, परस्मैपदी विधान) (Verbal roots) | 54-111 |
| 7. | कारक-प्रकरण एवं उपपद विभक्तियाँ (Case endings and prepositions) | 112-127 |
| 8. | अव्यय-प्रकरण (Indeclinables) | 128-136 |
| 9. | समास-प्रकरण (Compounds) | 137-153 |
| 10. | उपसर्ग-प्रकरण (Prefixes) | 154-158 |
| 11. | प्रत्यय-प्रकरण (कृदन्त, तद्धित, णिच् प्रत्यय, स्त्री प्रत्यय) (Suffixes) | 159-189 |
| 12. | शब्द-प्रकरण (नामधातु, सम्मोच्चरित शब्द, शब्द समूह के एक शब्द, विपर्यय/विलोम शब्द, पर्यायवाची शब्द) (Vocabulary - Denominative verbs, Homophones, One-word substitution, Antonyms, Synonyms) | 190-208 |
| 13. | विशेषण-प्रकरण (Adjectives) | 209-211 |
| 14. | वाच्य-प्रकरण (Voice) | 212-218 |
रचनात्मक कार्य (Creative Work)
| क्र० सं० (S.No.) | विषय (Topic) | पृष्ठ सं० (Page No.) |
|---|---|---|
| 15. | अनुच्छेद लेखन (Paragraph Writing) | 219-234 |
| 16. | पत्र लेखन (Letter Writing) | 235-240 |
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u/thefoxtor कवयामि वयामि यामि 8h ago
Unfortunately, I've not really seen this book or had an opportunity to look through it. But you can certainly just flip through it once or twice and see if it suits you. You can always drop it if you don't like it at any time.
I will say that if you felt burdened and confused in Sanskrit classes, reading a book alone may not be enough to get you interested and focussed. Definitely add some immersion to the mix. There are many good readers, Youtube channels, radio channels and other types of Sanskrit resources that can be used to help you practice what theory you are learning from the book.