Sanskrit- An Easy Introduction To An Enchanting Language- Tools Grammatical and Lexical, Text and Transition (Set of 2 Volumes)

The present edition of Sanskrit: an Easy Introduction to an Enchanting Language (abbreviated to SEL, as if the title were Sanskrit an Enchanting Language) is primarily intended for students studying Sanskrit through the medium of English at higher institutions of learning in the West.

It however, not necessary that the users be native speakers of English or that they be enrolled in colleges or universities. The materials have been prepared in such a way that they can be used quite easily by adults wishing to study Sanskrit privately on their own, Similarly, while the grammatical explanations, readings etc. are not specifically aimed at a readership of children, it should be quite feasible for an adult to adapt them for teaching Sanskrit to children .

For most students intending to use the knowledge of Sanskrit only as a tool in the study of culture and not intending to concentrate on the history of Sanskrit as a language or on Sanskrit as a tradition of literature in the broad sense of the term "literature including philosophical, scientific etc. works), the treatment SEL offers will be sufficient.

Others wishing to study Sanskrit itself in its magnificent expanse should, upon completing the study of SEL, turn to specialized or genre-specific grammars, dictionaries and annotated anthologies which are available for such areas of study as Vedic Sanskrit or Buddhist Sanskrit and which provide further details.

Because of poor teaching materials and procedures, it has come to be believed by some that Sanskrit is a difficult language to learn. Actually, Sanskrit is not more difficult than any other language that has been a vehicle of advanced culture. If proper methods are followed, Sanskrit is in fact an easy language to interpret because of its perspicuity, the regularity of its fundamental features (agreement of noun and adjective, agreement of subject and verb, case usage) and the systematization it has received at the hands of gifted grammarians. The scientific character of its script further facilitates the interpretation of its written form. For anyone who follows the guidance offered at various places in SEL (particularly in lessons 5-8), a study of Sanskrit should be an enjoyable entry into an amazingly rich world.

ADVICE ON HOW TO USE SEL:

1.1 Familiarize yourself with the overall direction and plan of SEL by glancing through the whole work. Note particularly the outline given on the cover pages of SEL vols. The three volumes of the work do not stand for something like introductory level, intermediate level, and advanced level but are to be used in conjunction. You begin to use vol. 1A and vol. 3A at about the same time, reading a lesson in the former and then working on the exercises of that lesson in the latter. Beginning with lesson 9, vol. 2 joins this process as a middle member.

1.2 If you have not studied languages other than your native language before or if you have learned other languages only through hearing and talking, the process of first reading a linguistic account and then applying it to a body of sentences may initially seem strange. Instead of forming conscious or subconscious abstractions and generalizations regarding your experience of a langauge, you will now be moving from abstractions and generalizations to the expericace of the language. However, the method is efficient and works particularly well if the primary and/or initial objective is to acquire reading ability. You will soon get used to it as countless others have in the past. For the moment, simply note that exercises in vol. 3A are to be completed after the relevant grammar lesson in vol. 1A is studied.

**Contents and Sample Pages**