[INDOLOGY] Ancient Greek for Sanskritists

Sat Aug 9 09:36:00 UTC 2025

Dear friends,

How strange this conversation looks to me !
Having learned Latin first (in secondary school), then mathematics and
ancient Greek (at the university) and finally Sanskrit (also at the
university, and motivated by my interest in history of mathematics) for my
PhD, I find it difficult to imagine things the other way round.
Since I learned the three languages as dead languages, and with the method
classical languages were taught in Europe, I was very surprised when I
(first journey to India, 1996) met Indian scholars who could speak Sanskrit
and even learned it this way. On the other hand, I am myself attracted by
learning related modern languages, like modern Greek or Hindi, in order to
utter sentences that evoke the ancient languages, so to say. My mother
language, French, or Italian, already gave me a sense of the Latin sound.
But, again, for me, Latin, ancient Greek or Sanskrit are languages I
imagine only on paper or other supports, on which I learned them and still
work (especially Sanskrit that I often translate from manuscripts).
Concerning the differences between ancient Greek and Sanskrit, I must say
that I was at first attracted by their mastery in my favourite subject,
i.e. mathematics. And in their texts, I found many differences, of course :
versification, quasi absence of diagrams, algorithmic approach VS
hypothetico-deductive Greek maths, etc. (a long list), on the Sanskrit
side. On a more general level, It is true, as you said, that ancient Greek
has more intricate rules in syntax. But my feeling is that these rules give
me the capacity of translating Greek sentences (with the help of a
dictionary and a grammar), while I am too often a quia when I have to give
meaning to a Sanskrit compound if I don't have the smallest idea of its
purpose. And this is the only domain where I find Sanskrit more difficult
than ancient Greek, which means that having learned ancient Greek
facilitated the way to Sanskrit (except for the writing (of the nagari)
which I considered as a game and mastered rather quickly). I don't know
what it would be like to learn these two languages the other way round...

Best regards,

*Jean Michel DELIRE, PhD*
*President of the Centre National d'Histoire des Sciences (KBR, Brussels)*
*Lecturer on **Science and civilisation of India - Sanskrit Texts -
IHEB (**University
of Brussels, **ULB)*
*Lecturer on History of mathematics - IHEB (ULB)*
*Member of the Société Asiatique (Paris)*
*Member of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies*
*Member (Advisory Board) of the International Study Group on the Relations
Between the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics*

Le ven. 8 août 2025 à 19:04, Raffaele Torella via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> a écrit :

> Dear Colleagues,
> I should like to draw your attention to the activity of Vivarium Novum
> Academy (https://www.vivariumnovum.net/en), which is probably known to
> some of you as the venue of the wonderful Raniero Gnoli day, held in
> October 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc-HaEXsVoA&t=524s). In
> October 2024 it was also the seat of the Biannual Meeting of the Italian
> Association for Sanskrit Studies.
>
> Vivarium Novum, Campus Mondiale dell’Umanesimo, housed in the Borrominian
> Villa Falconieri near Frascati, promotes the study of Latin (including
> Medieval and Renaissance Latin) and Greek (Classical and Homeric) also as
> spoken languages. The President, Prof. Luigi Miraglia, with whom I am in
> close contact, has recently visited Nepal (for the WSC) and India in order
> to create Latin and Greek curricula in the Sanskrit Universities (to be
> extended in the near future to the major Indian Universities).
>
> Warmest wishes,
> Raffaele
>
> Il giorno 8 ago 2025, alle ore 17:41, Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> ha scritto:
>
> Dear all,
>
> Seth Powell already sent out the Yogic Studies course offerings for the
> autumn, but I wanted to take the liberty to point out a YS course that may
> be of particular interest to members of this list, Greek-S 101: Ancient
> Greek for Sanskritists, which I will teach starting September 15.
>
> I made a short video describing the course, which you can watch here
> <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/XdJrcKwslck?si%3D9KRhtPi1G8-IXSRQ&source=gmail-imap&ust=1755272552000000&usg=AOvVaw1QVr7wjr5GTpVqlU0ArD2L>; but
> in a nutshell: if you already know Sanskrit, you have an excellent basis
> for getting to grips with Ancient Greek. There is an enormous amount of
> overlap in the forms and their usage, and the main difference between the
> two languages (the rather more intricate rules of syntax that Greek has) is
> exactly what we will be discussing in detail.
>
> Greek-S 101 covers all Ancient Greek grammar with the help of lots of
> custom-made resources; in 102, we will read Plato's Apology, and in 103
> either Sophocles' Antigone or Euripides' Medea, both with readers I am
> making for each course. You can find all information on this sequence of
> courses at https://www.yogicstudies.com/greek-s-101
> <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.yogicstudies.com/greek-s-101&source=gmail-imap&ust=1755272552000000&usg=AOvVaw1NWnxLGlNzzrGUFITTiq2z>
> .
>
> If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
>
> All my best,
>     Antonia
>
> PS: Our course 'Latin for Sanskritists' just ended two weeks ago; the
> third term was 12 weeks of reading Seneca's Letters and contrasting
> Hellenistic philosophies with some of the philosophical approaches that we
> find in ancient India.
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>
> https://www.google.com/url?q=https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology&source=gmail-imap&ust=1755272552000000&usg=AOvVaw1QtRjTI4rep5I5uL-h0RRI
>
>
> Prof. Raffaele Torella
> Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit
> Sapienza University of Rome
> wwwuniroma1.academia.edu/raffaeletorella
>
>
> *Fai crescere le giovani ricercatrici e i giovani ricercatori*
>
> *con il 5 per mille alla Sapienza*
>
> Scrivi il codice fiscale dell'Università
> *80209930587**Cinque per mille <https://www.uniroma1.it/it/node/23149>*
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20250809/f9341c85/attachment.htm>