[INDOLOGY] nipānarītiśāstrastutiḥ /// Fwd: Landmark in the Didactics of Sanskrit

[Jan E.M. Houben]

निपानरीतिमार्गेण  संस्कृताध्यापनार्थकम् ।

चकार नलिनी शास्त्रम्  अतोऽध्येता प्रसिध्यति ॥



nipānarītimārgeṇa   saṁsktādhyāpanārthakam /

cakāra Nalinī śāstram   ato’dhyetā prasidhyati //


(without gemination in the last word)


NB I just found a review of Nalini Balbir's Le Sanskrit on Youtube (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOaFAvdjQeQ) in which the author recommends
even to spend a few weeks learning French in order to be able to enjoy
using this Assimil method to learn Sanskrit!

NB2 Classical grammars of Sanskrit and specialised manuals such as Tubb &
Moose's Scholastic Sanskrit will obviously remain useful and important esp.
for advanced courses in Sanskrit.


JH

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com>
Date: 20 December 2013 01:28
Subject: Landmark in the Didactics of Sanskrit
To: "indology at list.indology.info" <indology at list.indology.info>


Landmark in the Didactics of Sanskrit:

Le Sanskrit by Nalini Balbir according to the method “Assimil”



Consisting of a book of almost 900 pages plus a number of CDs (1 MP3 CD, 4
audio-CDs), this is the FIRST EVER teaching method of Sanskrit (since more
than 200 years of Sanskrit didactics) which presents the language as a
lively means of expression and communication AND which is entirely based on
(first) adapted and (in later lessons) attested examples from literature
(drama, fables and other stories), to be learned through the widely tested
method of intuitive assimilation rather than through a grammar plus
exercises. The book is NOT an introduction to “Spoken Sanskrit” (in India
several introductions and learning methods for this are available of
varying quality), although it does seem to have the capacity to bring
someone VERY close to it, so that any transition to a really active and
expressive use of Sanskrit should become natural and without the risk that
one deviates too much from a classical style of “correct” Sanskrit. A
willingness to coin new terms for new, non-classical “things” and
“concepts” is the minimum needed to embark on a full-fledged active use of
Sanskrit after going through this course. For instance, the concept of the
method of assimilation in learning a language could be adequately rendered
as nipāna-rītiḥ (निपान-रीतिः). An English version of Balbir’s Le Sanskrit
is under preparation.



Information on the book including an audio-example can be found at:



http://fr.assimil.com/methodes/2678/declinaisons/super-pack-livre-cd-audio-cd-mp3-3969



Why is this a landmark and why can it be expected to be a turning point in
the didactics of Sanskrit? When the Europeans encountered Sanskrit in India
in the 17th and 18th century they encountered a highly sophisticated
communicative device << the question whether or not it was agreeing to
externally imposed definitions of a “language, dead or alive” is hardly
interesting >> which had BOTH an archival function for traditional
religious hymns, ancient legends etc. AND an expressive-communicative
function. Curiously enough, from the first full-fledged grammar onwards
(the one by Wilkins), the main aim was to cater for an interest in the
archival function only but definitely not for any interest in communication
with those who actively used the communicative device. The result is a fast
and remarkable process that can be labeled as a complete
“antiquarianisation” of Sanskrit, and its assimilation with largely defunct
classical languages of Europe, Latin and ancient Greek. One of the results
of 200 years of didactics of Sanskrit as a “dead” classical language is
that the first thing any student has to do if by chance s/he has the
natural interest in learning to know Sanskrit as a device that ALSO has an
expressive-communicative function, is either to shift to studying Hindi or
Tamil or to give up that interest and learn to learn Sanskrit as a purely
antiquarian tool giving priviliged access to archives of a supposed ancient
indo-european civilisation and to “real” (rather than "remembered" or
“lived”) Indian history (with as an additional interest, almost like an
excuse already mentioned by Wilkins, to have access to a large part of the
vocabulary of modern Indian languages). Although the fact that the fast and
complete antiquarianisation of Sanskrit took place is *understandable* from
the point of view of the European context in which the “discovery” was done
and found its constructed place and no-one need to be *blamed* for it, it
is no less *absurd* from both an Asian and a global point of view. It can
be predicted that Balbir’s Le Sanskrit and its English version that is
under preparation will indeed be a turning point because the natural demand
of students will be, every year again, to learn the complete thing even if
the preference of older generations of teachers will remain for some time
with the outdated, very incomplete and inadequate grammars and teaching
manuals – which, of course, in their own way represent a labour of love and
passion by previous authors – to which they have become so emotionally
attached. The older generations of teachers, hoping in vain that what they
learned and taught was indeed “all” ever needed to learn of Sanskrit, might
for a few more years succeed to mold new generations of students into the
shackles of their old grammars and inadequate methods, but sooner or later
the demand of students and interested public will become too strong to be
neglected. Just as the fun of learning maths is in doing it, the fun of
learning Sanskrit is in using it – also – for expression and communication.




My felicitations to the author and commemoration of the encouraging event
of the publication of this new method of learning Sanskrit, I would like to
express as follows:



निपानरीतिमार्गेण  संस्कृताध्यापनार्थकम् ।

चकार नलिनी शास्त्रम्  अतोऽध्येता प्रसिद्ध्यति ॥



nipānarītimārgeṇa   saṁsktādhyāpanārthakam /

cakāra Nalinī śāstram   ato’dhyetā prasiddhyati //



-- 
Prof. Dr. Jan E.M. Houben,
Directeur d Etudes « Sources et Histoire de la Tradition Sanskrite »
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, SHP,
A la Sorbonne,45-47, rue des Ecoles,
75005 Paris -- France.
JEMHouben at gmail.com
www.jyotistoma.nl


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20131220/0ae6619b/attachment.htm>