Sanskrit Basic Course

1. This course is meant for all people who want to acquire basic knowledge of the Sanskrit language. No previous knowledge is required. The course is purposefully designed on a undergraduate level. That means, by avoiding the complicated linguistic discussions of the graduate courses, we take the essence of the language and present it in an easily understandable way. The main topics taught hereby are:

•  reading and writing the Devanagari script

•  proper pronunciation in terms of sound and rhythm

•  dividing continuous Sanskrit texts in their parts (Sandhi)

•  learning the basic grammatical constructions, like

  •  declension of nouns and adjectives

  •  the elemental verb functions

  •  using pronouns and adverbs

  •  understanding the structure of Sanskrit sentences

  •  understanding the structure and syntax of compound words

  •  building and understanding simple sentences

  •  learning the etymological meaning of many terms of Vedic knowledge

Stress is given to good understanding of the structure of Sanskrit. For that, numerous examples and exercises are given.

2. The course material is centred around the verses of the Bhagavad-Gita. Together with an additional twelve-months BA course the successful student will be able to fully understand all verses of Bhagavad-Gita in all details. Since this course also serves as accompanying study for our Vasati and Ayurveda students, we also will deal with various technical terms of these branches of Vedic knowledge.

3. As a student of a correspondence/online course, you study independently of space and time. You can start at any time, and you are free to set up your own study schedule. The course is set up in six lessons which could be completed in one month each, by one hour daily study time. The correspondence course material consists of one folder of approx. 250 pages A4, plus one 3-hour VHS videotape with practical lessons in script and pronunciation. Students studying online have unlimited access to the whole study material, and also get the videotape sent by mail. Each lesson contains numerous exercises (with solutions given in the appendix) and several homework assignments. These assignments should be sent to the study mentor in monthly terms to be corrected by him. You are also free to contact your mentor with any question concerning your study (or other questions concerning the Sanskrit language).

4. The Course is conducted either as classical correspondence course or online. Since in the beginning, stress is taken to the learning of the Devanagari script, at least the homework of the first two months should be answered in handwritten form - thus, they should be sent by mail. After that, correspondence is also possible by email. For that case, we would send you special fonts with diacritic signs or even a Devanagari font.

5. Here is an excerpt of the table of contents. It provides you with an overview of the course:

•  Introduction
   · 10 Golden Rules For the Successful Course of Your Studies Preface About
   · Sanskrit
   · How to Learn Sanskrit?
   · he Bhagavad-Gita
   · About This Course
  
  
•  Lesson 1
    · The Alphabet
    · The Basic Signs
    · Writing by Hand
    · Compound Syllables
    · Writing Syllables
    · Writing Sonantic Compounds
    · Ligatures (Conjunct Consonants)
    · Numbers and Special Signs
  
  
•  Lesson 2
    · Sound and Rhythm
    · Importance of Pronunciation
    · Pronouncing the Basic Letters
    · Particular Cases - the "r" Sound
    · The Rules of Rhythm
    · Metrical Foot (pada)
    · Sentence Melody and Articulation
    · Sandhi (Change of Sound)
    · The Meaning of Sandhi
    · The Pausa Rules
    · Sandhi in the Sentence
    · The Word Sandhi
  
  
•  Lesson 3
    · The Sentence in Sanskrit
    · Elements of Sentence
    · The Anvaya
    · Principles of Syntax
    · Declension
    · Aspects of Declension
    · Gender and Article
    · Number
    · Case
    · The General Declension Endings
    · Declension on a
    · Applying the Declension Cases
    · Declension on i/u
  
  
•  Lesson 4
    · The Verb
    · System of Roots and Stem Forms
    · Forms of Present Tense
    · Thematic Stems
    · Athematic Stems
    · Important Structure Words
    · Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns
    · Prepositions and Others
    · Further Declensions
  
  
•  Lesson 5
    · The Pronouns
    · Personal Pronouns
    · Demonstrative and Relative Pronouns
    · Interrogatives (Question Words)
    · Indefinite Pronouns
    · Pronominal Adjectives
    · Adverbs
    · Forming through Case Forms
    · Forming through Adverb Suffixes
    · Correlations
    · Correlative Word Pairs
    · The Passive
    · Important Passive Stems
  
  
•  Lesson 6
    · Samasas (Compound Words)
    · Introduction and Examples
    · Division of the Samasas
    · Declension of Samasas
    · Numerals
    · Cardinal Numbers
    · Ordinal Numbers
    · Important Terms of Vedic Science
    · Vedic Specialist Dictionary
  
  
•  Appendix
    · Solutions of Exercises
    · A Sanskrit Glossary
    · Glossary Sanskrit-English
    · Glossary English-Sanskrit

6. At the end of the study, you are free to participate at a final exam. With its successful completion, you will be awarded a Certificate in Sanskrit, qualifying you as “Sanskrit-pravesaka” (one who has entered the realm of the Sanskrit language).