In Sanskrit Finals, composition is no longer mandatory. For the BA students, it is one option among many others for the so-called special subject (1 paper), chosen area (2 papers), or a potential dissertation (instead of the special subject paper). The core syllabus remains roughly the same (6 papers: 2 papers for subsidiary language; Panini, Vedic, general essay paper on history/literature/arts with additional input from special subject; and unseen translations).

I took Finals in 2012. Richard Gombrich was/is still active and around, but my main Sanskrit teachers were Chris Minkowski, Jim Benson, Alexis Sanderson, Jowita Kramer, and Csaba Dezsö.

With my best wishes,

Paul Gerstmayr

On 1 September 2015 at 06:14, Patrick Olivelle <jpo@uts.cc.utexas.edu> wrote:

Actually, composition was a mandatory paper/exam at the finals when I took it at Oxford in 1972. I think it was done away with sometime after that.

Patrick

On Aug 31, 2015, at 8:23 PM, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk@gmail.com> wrote:

When Richard Gombrich taught the Sanskrit BA course at Oxford, Sanskrit composition was an option on the syllabus. In the finals, one could choose Sanskrit comp., or instead a longer unseen translation (if I recall correctly).

I think Skt. composition formed part of the syllabus under Burrow, before Richard, which would take it back to the war. I expect before that, it was also there, Sanskrit being taught on the model of Greats.

I don't know about the present syllabus.

Best,
Dominik Wujastyk

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Paul Gerstmayr
Oriental Studies

St John's College, Oxford