The first time I really ´studied´ Sanskrit (and then understanding the mantras which we had learnt by rote), was in the 70s, and through the Jesuit priest Antoine´s book on Sanskrit. in 2 volumes. Now it sounds strange that a traditional Sanskritist here in Banaras used this as a text book, this was for English speaking students.
By that time I had passed the stage of fearing the classical languages as with Latin when we said at school: Latin is a subject as dead as dead can be; it killed the ancient Romans and now it´s killing me!
Sanskrit is now keeping me alive.
Jay
Objet : Sanskrit Primers: R. Antoine's Sanskrit Manual
Date : 22 juillet 2008
Dear Colleagues,
Good old Antoine! I think it is still relatively easy to get copies in India. Unfortunately, the one I used to have (in two volumes) was printed in India and was very difficult to read because of the so badly printed (and too small) devanagari script, not to speak of the many printing errors. But it was - and remains - a very thorough introduction to Sanskrit along with Kale's grammar (which suffers from the same printing defects).
There seems to be an amazing array of published and unpublished Sanskrit primers which I have been made aware of through kind communications from many colleagues. Mille grazie! Personally I would have liked to try out David Shulman's superb primer. Unfortunately it is in Hebrew, and the English translation is not yet out. Maurer caught my attention because it is amusing with chapters like "The mysterious gerund" and "The Romance of compounds" apart from being very well organized.
Coulson has too much transliteration, and since it is a teach-yourself-book, there is a key to all the exercises which is counter-productive in a class room. Killingley introduces the devanagari script only in lesson 23. Here in Canada, where more than half (and sometimes all) of the students are of Indian origin, a text book using so much transliteration will be perceived as arrogant Western neo-colonialism. And even the least gifted student usually learns the script in two weeks - that's when I stop transliterating.
There is no ideal text book out there - but there are many very good ones. All of them have their strong and weak points. As the grammar doesn't change from one year the only thing an instructor can change is the text book.
Best regards to all
Stella Sandahl
Objet : Sanskrit Primers: R. Antoine's Sanskrit Manual
Date : 22 juillet 2008
Dear Colleagues,
I dare to add another Sanskrit primer to the other excellent ones (Coulson, Deshpande, etc.) which could have been quoted in the discussion.
Some years ago, I heard through an Indian friend (a Syriac scholar from Kottayam) about the high value of the Sanskrit Manual of Father R. Antoine s.j., a Belgian scholar who taught in St. Xavier's College, Calcutta (cf. http://www.goethals.in/collections/felixrajarticles/robert.htm : Robert Antoine: The Indologist by J Felix Raj, SJ). More recently, Prof. Winand Callewaert, from the University of Leuven, told me that he was also using Antoine's manual for his 1st year Sanskrit students.
I finally got an exemplar of this manual through an antiquarian bookseller.
The "Part I" is in two volumes entitled "A Sanskrit Manual for High schools" and "Book of Exercises for the Sanskrit Manual" (1953, Catholic Press, Ranchi; a think that there was in the seventies a reprint in one vol.). The 26 lessons, supposed to cover "the matter of the first three years (standards IV to VI or classes VI to VIII)" of High school, appears to fit perfectly with a first year Sanskrit at the university level.
The lessons are very clear, and the vocabulary to learn, Sanskrit sentences to translate and composition exercises well chosen.
The "Part II" "meant as an immediate preparation for the School Final Examination", joins in one vol. 27 lessons and the exercices, in which the Sanskrit sentences are taken from Kaavya-maalaa or Kaalidaasa and classical literature (+ at the end a list of "verbal roots with their principal parts", "Sanskrit-English Glossary" and "English-Sanskrit Glossary"). So, at the end of High school, it was at that time possible to acquire a Sanskrit level as good as here the level of Greek and Latin of my forefathers... (which is now only possible to acquire at the University).
Despite a few misprints to be corrected, the Manual deserves to be reprinted.
I shall try with 1st year students the vol. I for the coming academic year.
With best wishes,
Christophe Vielle
[Addendum 2013:] A .pdf version of the 1st ed.