A Practical Sanskrit Intro ductory This print le is available from ftpftpnacaczawiknersktintropsjan Preface This course of fteen lessons is intended to lift the Englishsp eaking studentwho knows nothing of Sanskrit to the level where he can intelligently apply Monier DhatuPat ha Williams dictionary and the to the study of the scriptures The rst ve lessons cover the pronunciation of the basic Sanskrit alphab et Devanagar together with its written form in b oth and transliterated Roman ash cards are included as an aid The notes on pronunciation are largely descriptive based on mouth p osition and eort with similar English Received Pronunciation sounds oered where p ossible The next four lessons describ e vowel emb ellishments to the consonants the principles of conjunct consonants Devanagar and additions to and variations in the alphab et Lessons ten and sandhi eleven present in grid form and explain their principles in sound The next three lessons p enetrate MonierWilliams dictionary through its four levels of alphab etical order and suggest strategies for nding dicult words The artha DhatuPat ha last lesson shows the extraction of the from the and the application of this and the dictionary to the study of the scriptures In addition to the primary course the rst eleven lessons include a B section whichintro duces the student to the principles of sentence structure in this fully inected language Six declension paradigms and class conjugation in the present tense are used with a minimal vo cabulary of nineteen words In the B part of lessons ten and eleven the principles of comp ound words are intro duced The course aims at a practical understanding of the basic principles at getting a feel for the language and not a learning of rules byroteTo this end each lesson concludes with exercises for the student to put that understanding into practice answers to the exercises are presented in an app endix MonierWilliams SanskritEnglish Dictionary is currently published by b oth Motilal Banarsidass in India and Oxford University Press in England although the two are printed from the same plates the latter is far sup erior in the quality of printing pap er and binding and this is reected in its much higher price The edition of the Dhatupat ha referred to in these notes is that edited by JLShastri and published by Motilal Banarsidass it is a small b o ok and quite inexp ensive iv A Practical Sanskrit Intro ductory The pronunciation oered in these lessons is optimised for the Englishsp eaking sandhi student to understand the underlying principles of sound changes There are several variations in the pronunciation of some of the Sanskrit sounds that have b een handed down over generations None of these traditions are wrong although this may confuse the mind trained to think in terms of opp osites of right and wrong Consider the English sp oken in Britain and America for example they are certainly dierent but neither is wrong A Where there is a variation in the form of a character eg or these lessons standardize on the form that is most commonly used in currently available Bhagavad Gta Upanis ad printed editions of the and s The common variations are illustrated in the ninth lesson In the Englishsp eaking world there is currently little appreciation of the value of studying formal grammar as a result it has b ecome unp opular and many scho ols have ceased to teach it In view of this situation an app endix of basic English grammatical terms is included Readers are invited to p oint out errors in the course and oer suggestions for its improvement Charles Wikner wiknernacacza June Contents Preface iii Contents v Invo cation ix Lesson A Vowel Measures B The Concept of Dhatu A Sanskrit Pronunciation B Intro duction to Verbs A The Three Primary Vowels aiu B Exercises A The Other Simple Vowels r l B Flash Cards A The Comp ound Vowels eaioau A Summary of All Vowels A The Sixteen Sakti am ah A Practicing the Alphab et Lesson A The Five Mouth Positions B More on Verbs A The TwentyFive Stops ka to ma B Exercises A Pronunciation of the Stops A Devanagar Alphab et Lesson a B More on Verbs A The Four SemiVowels yaralav A The Three Sibilants sa sasa B Intro duction to nouns A The Final Consonant ha B Exercises A Summary of the Consonants A The Alphab etical Order A Devanagar Alphab et Lesson A Devanagar Alphab et B Summary of Verbs B More on Noun Cases B Exercises Lesson A Devanagar Alphab et B More on Noun Cases B Exercises vi A Practical Sanskrit Intro ductory Lesson A Vowels after Consonants B Sentence Structure English and Sanskrit A History of Vowel Emb ellishment B Noun Gender B Summary of Case Information B Exercises Lesson A Halanta Consonants B Verbal Prexes A Conjunct Consonants B Exercises A Sp ecial Conjuncts ksa and jna A Pronunciation of ksa A Pronunciation of jna A List of Conjunct Consonants Lesson A Sp ecial Symb ols B More Noun Declensions A Savarna B Adjectives A Nasal Substitution for Anusvara B Adverbs A Devanagar Numerals B Vo cabulary Summary B Exercises Lesson A Vowel Accents B Typ es of Words A Variations in Devanagar Alphab et B Use of iti A Variations in Samyoga B Exercises A Revision Lesson A Intro duction to Sandhi B Intro duction to Comp ound Words A Guna and Vrddhi B Joining Words in Writing A Vowel Sandhi B Exercises A Exceptions to Vowel Sandhi A Samprasarana Lesson A Visarga Sandhi B Dvandva Samasa A Consonant Sandhi Grid B Tatpurusa Samasa A Internal Sandhi B Avyaybhava Samasa B Bahuvrhi Samasa B Exercises Contents vii Lesson MonierWilliams Dictionary Alphab et and Transliteration Fundamental Structure Page Heading Words Dictionary Practice Lesson Words b eginning with Sa Structure of Devanagar level Structure within nonDhatu entries References and Abbreviations Sp ecial Symbols Signicance of Hyphen and Caret Symbols Supplement to the Dictionary Dictionary Practice Lesson Tracing a Word to its Dhatu Dhatu Entry Information Numb ered Entries Misleading Words Dicult Words Dictionary Practice Lesson Intro duction to DhatuPat ha The Contents Page The Text Bo dy The Index Dhatu Sp elling Changes Illustrations of DhatuPat ha Use Study of the Scriptures Study Practice App endix Suggestions for Further Study App endix Answers to Exercises App endix English Grammatical Terms Sanskrit Glossary and Index viii A Practical Sanskrit Intro ductory ix I NVOCATION teajaava naavaDa a ta ma tua Translations Eectivemay our study prove Invo cation to Daks inamurti Upanisad AMSastry May our study b e thorough and fruitful Invo cation to Kat ha Upanisad Swam Sarvananda Let what we are studying b e invigorating Invo cation to Kat ha Upanis ad SwamGambhrananda May our study b e vigorous and eective Invo cation to Taittirya Swam Sarvananda Let our study b e brilliant Invo cation to Taittirya SwamGambhrananda May our study b e full of light First Lessons in Sanskrit Judith Tyb erg padaana teajaava naEaADaatama Atua teajaava neuter nominative singular of adjective tejasvin tejasvin mw c mfn brilliant splendid bright energetic Panini bahlM Cndasa In the Veda the ax vin is variously intro duced u in the sense of matup b elonging to this existing in this tejas sharp edge of a knife p oint or top of ame or ray glow glare splendour brilliance light re p tij mw a to b e or b ecome sharp ataja BvaaadgaNa Aatmaneapad seaf anaZaanea DhP nisana mw a n sharp ening whetting observing p erceiving Comment Tejas is a name given to the subtle element of re having qualities of heat and light With reference to our study of Sanskrit this may b e understo o d as the heat that burns o the dross of ignorance and allows the light of understanding to shine through naEa genitive dual of p ersonal pronoun I giving the meaning of us b oth student and teacher or simply our ADaatama neuter nominative singular of adhtam The past passive participle used in the sense of an abstract noun adhta mw c mfn attained studied read wellread learned p adhi i to turn the mind towards observe understand adhi mw b prex expressing ab ove over and ab ove b esides p i to go walk to ow to blow to advance spread get ab out to go to or towards come to succeed to arrive at reach obtain to undertakeanything to b e employed in go on with continue in any condition or relation DhP Ik AdaadgaNa Aatmaneapad Aanaf smaNea smarana mw b n the act of causing to rememb er reminding calling to mind DhPIz AdaadgaNa pasmEapad Aanaf ADyayanea adhyayana mw c n reading studying esp ecially the Veda s DhPIz AdaadgaNa pasmEapad Aanaf gataEa gati mw c f going moving gait dep ortment motion in general p Atua rst p erson singular imp erativeof as to b e ie let it b e may it b e or simply b e p as mw a to b e live exist b e present take place happ en DhPAsa AdaadgaNa pasmEapad seaf Buaava bhu mw c f the act of arising or b ecoming T reating adhtam as a neuter noun and tejasvi its complement this gives a rather plo dding translation of Let our study b e bright Using p o etic licence to convey the sense of the whole rather than the literal wordbyword translation wehave y May the Light Shine up on our Studies y The light of understandingknowledgetruth x A Practical Sanskrit Intro ductory Lesson A Sanskrit is written in devanagar script The word devanagar means the city nagar of immortals deva There are no capital letters In Sanskrit each letter represents one and only one sound In English the letter a for example may indicate