An Introduction to Sanskrit: Applied Grammar and Composition

Description

For centuries the students had been asked to study Grammar twelve years to be at home with the Sanskrit language. The early European scholars had almost to undergo the same exercise, but what they brought out for their pupils was somewhat different. In the beginning, the terms of the Hindu grammarians were uncouthly fitted in the western grammatical scheme, which was later on gradually given up. After several stages of simplification, the Sanskrit grammar has now been reduced to the actual requirement of the classical texts. Macdonell’s or Stenzler’s revised grammars perhaps represent the points of culmination. But these scholars had in their mind only the western students who had studied Greek and Latin before taking up Sanskrit. Therefore mule hale hatam sarvam may be the first exercise in a western Sanskrit Grammar, but an Indian teacher may be puzzled when asked to explain this sentence to his students in the ‘first lesson.’ Therefore, we require a primer of Sanskrit which does not anticipate the knowledge of any other language. The structure of Sanskrit itself is to be revealed to the students. The noted peculiarity of this book is that it gives exercises on transformation of sentences. Its value will be realised only when the exercises are taken up.