Suggest me good book to learn Sanskrit

[Avinash]

Please suggest me some really good book, which teaches Sanskrit. The book should be such that after learning Sanskrit from it, one should be able to understand the meanings of verses in our scriptures like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Puranas.

I will prefer if the book is in Hindi. This is because if it is in English, then I will have to keep in mind lots of transliteration rules. But if it is in Hindi, then the book will use Devanagari script, which is also used in the scriptures. Moreover, Sanskrit is much closer to Hindi than to English. For these reasons, I prefer the book to be in Hindi.

Any suggestions?

[Avinash]

You might be wondering why I did not post this in Sanskrit forum. A few weeks back I made a similar post in Sanskrit forum but there was no reply. I expect to get replies here. Moreover, since I am talking about scriptures here, I think this forum is also suitable for such a post.

[kimfelix]

Avinash, it is very difficult to learn Sanskrit just from a book without a teacher to help. You could try 'Teach Yourself Sanskrit' by Coulson or 'A Sanskrit Primer' by Perry if you can get it. They do help I think but it will be a number of years before you are able to properly apply what you have learned to translating Sanskrit literature.

 

Good luck

[bhaktajan]

Attached are two pages.

 

Print both --"back-to-back" onto a single page.

 

Cut out the 8 items.

 

And thus you have 8 Flash cards to start.

 

I will be posting all 10 pages (actually 20 Pages) a few at a time as per the allowed 'file-size' limitations.

 

I have compiled common spoken phrases in Sanskrit herein [ie: Hello, Good Morning, Please, Thank you, How much is that/this?, What time is it? Would you like more prasadam? What is your name? My name is Jeeves, etc ].

 

The source of my sanskrit phrases is Hari-venu's new books --"Sanskrit grammer" [go to KrishnaCulture.com to order his two books on Learning sanskrit].

 

respectfully yours,

Bhaktajan

Sanskrit Flash Cards - Partial.doc

[Avinash]

Kimiflex,

I agree that a teacher is required. But I want a book because I learnt Sanskrit from a very good teacher in my student life. In fact, I was considered the best student in Sanskrit by the teacher from whom I got tutuins and also by Sanskrit teachers in my school. But I have forgotten some of things because I am not in touch with Sanskrit as much as I was earlier. If I find a good book, then I will be able to remember many things.

I am not looking for any Primer book. I want some book, which explains even the advanced concepts in detail.

[tackleberry]

 

Kimiflex,

I agree that a teacher is required. But I want a book because I learnt Sanskrit from a very good teacher in my student life. In fact, I was considered the best student in Sanskrit by the teacher from whom I got tutuins and also by Sanskrit teachers in my school. But I have forgotten some of things because I am not in touch with Sanskrit as much as I was earlier. If I find a good book, then I will be able to remember many things.

I am not looking for any Primer book. I want some book, which explains even the advanced concepts in detail.

 

Are you looking to understand grammar, or improve your vocabulary? Vocabulary is important, because even if you understand grammar, you still have to know the words to attempt a translation. So it might be better if you start reading the texts to improve your vocabulary.

[Avinash]

I want to be good in both vocabulary and grammar. In fact, in Sanskrit, knowing grammar well will help me be better in vocabulary because if I know sandhi, samaas etc., then I can understand meanings of many words. So, I want both.