Sanskrit 101 Online

March 20, 2012 10:05 AM

Are there any reputable online equivalents to a university level "intro to Sanskrit"?

I am currently the English editor of a 16th century philosophical text translated from classical Sanskrit.

I'm looking for a distance learning, university level course that will give me a basic grasp of Sanskrit grammar. It would be nice if I could start immediately and progress at my own pace.

I am more interested in programs that have the air of academia than those with a whiff of yoga/new-age opportunism. (Do a Google search, you'll see what I mean.)

Thank you.

posted by eric1halfb to writing & language (3 answers total)

Check out the American Sanskrit Institute. Although you will detect some whiffs of yoga there (impossible to avoid, given the historical connections), the Sanskrit scholarship is very solid and the teaching methods, while rigorous, are delightfully accessible and effective. They have residential immersion courses as well as a program you can do on your own on CD.

I envy you -- you're about to have a great deal of fun. Sanskrit grammar is like Disneyland for the brain. I only did one week-long program, but it was probably the most valuable single week of learning I ever encountered.
posted by Corvid at 2:30 PM on March 20, 2012

Perry's Sanskrit Primer was used in university Sanskrit classes maybe continuously for 100 years or more. There are plenty of other options now, but it's what my teacher used, along with Lanman's reader and Whitney's grammar. It was nice to have a weekly reason to keep up, but honestly, the course wasn't much different from self-study, which sounds like it exactly fits your schedule.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:52 PM on March 20, 2012

Thanks to both of you for the suggestions.

Corvid: I thought the ASI was the most promising of the yoga-related sites I found. There are a lot of resources available there. Thanks for that. "Disneyland for the brain" sounds good.

Monsieur Caution: Great suggestions, all of them. Thank you. I managed to find all three texts on archive.org.
posted by eric1halfb at 8:23 AM on March 21, 2012