The purpose, in writing this book, is to provide a self-contained primer, workbook and reader for teaching first- year Sanskrit students with no previous linguistic training. The author has tried throughout the work to introduce, explain and illustrate the most significant features of the language and through verses, quotations, and readings.
To these ends the grammar has been, in several areas, simplified to prevent the beginner from being more hampered than is absolutely necessary by relatively insignificant paradigms, rules, and exceptions.
Upon completion of this course, students should have a real working knowledge of the major outlines of Sanskrit sentences with some facility and read, with the help of dictionary, approximately five to ten verses of the Valmiki Ramayana or a similar text in an hour.
ROBERT P. GOLDMAN received his Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. He is Professor of Sanskrit and Chair of the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught Sanskrit for many years. He is the General Editor of the Valmiki Ramayana Translation Project as well as one of its principal translators. He has taught and published widely in the areas of Sanskrit literature, epic, and traditional Indian culture.
SALLY J. SUTHERLAND GOLDMAN received her Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1979, where she has since taught Sanskrit and related subjects. She is the Associate Editor of the Valmiki Ramayana Translation Project as well as one of its principal translators. In addition to her work on the Ramayana, she has edited two books and has written numerous articles on women in the early Indian tradition.
The present edition is offered in response to numerous requests on the part of students, colleagues, and friends in India who have expressed interest in a modern, accessible, and user-friendly method to acquire or revive a fundamental knowledge of Sanskrit grammar. Many students at the college level have not had the opportunity of studying this fascinating language, while older friends, who may have studied it in their youth would now like to renew their acquaintance with it and so gain direct access to the seminal religious, philosophical, and literary texts of pre-modern India. It is to them that this edition is dedicated in the hopes that it may spark renewed interest in one of India’s and the world’s greatest cultural legacies.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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