Sanskrit primer recommendation?

[Guest guest]

Dear list members,

 

I am planning to start a course in Sanskrit for beginners at my department

(Religious Studies). It is many years since I learned Sanskrit myself, and I

guess - I hope - that there has been produced better teaching material since

then. We used Perry's Primer in combination with Stenzler's grammar. The

grammar, I think, is excellent and very useful because it is brief and

systematic, but it is difficult for beginners with its short and precise rules

in German. However, if the primer has a more pedagogical introduction to the

grammar, this is OK.

 

Perry's primer is confusing for several reasons. The transliteration scheme is

outdated (it has c-cedil for palatal s, n-macron for the guttural nasal,

m-overdot for anusvaara, a-macron+i for ai, a-macron+u for au), and it has a

confusing underdot marking of vocal sandhis. But the idea of having translation

exercises (both ways) with every chapter is very good I think.

 

Another more general problem with the old primers is that they presuppose a

knowledge of Latin and Greek grammar which is not at all possible with our

students.

 

What are your suggestions for a modern primer? What material do you use?

 

Best,

mikael

 

-----------------------------

Mikael Aktor, Fixed-term lecturer, PhD

Department of Philosophy, Education and Study of Religions

University of Southern Denmark

Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark

Phone: +45 6550 3318 (work) / +45 3696 9054 (home) / +45 2830 7394 (mobile)

[Guest guest]

John Landahl wrote:

 

> Unfortunately, it's insanely expensive for no apparent reason ($305 on

> Amazon). Does anyone know why this is the case?

 

Curious. It's available from Amazon UK for about £80.00 (approx $150) --

still expensive (typical of Curzon) but much less than the US price.

 

Best wishes,

Stephen Hodge