Complete Sanskrit Beginner to Intermediate Course: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language (Teach Yourself)

Haven't read yet but because I used the same series on Hindi learning so I purchased this. Hope it helps sincerely.

What I needed

I worked through the first three chapters of Complete Sanskrit and decided to switch to The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit. Both books cover roughly the same beginner to intermediate level. But I prefer the organization of the Cambridge book, which provides a more complete overview of the whole structure of the language before diving in to particular topics. That better fits my own learning style and ultimately helps with memorization. Also, Cambridge comes with more extensive learning resources including YouTube videos. One particular annoyance is that the devanagari script in Complete Sanskrit is sometimes so small that it is not clearly legible since the quality of the printing is not as sharp. This is particularly evident in the table of conjunct consonants. To its credit, Complete Sanskrit provides an answer key to all of the exercises which is particularly helpful for self-study. (Cambridge does not.)

A nice book on sanskrit.

works great, just like picture.

Coulson Sanskrit is a Classic and no doubt a great book. However, for most self-learners it is too difficult and you will get hopelessly stuck after a few chapters, unless you have a very solid background in Latin or even better Ancient Greek. My Ancient Greek is pretty decent, but I still was unable to get through Coulson. I then did all the exercises of the two Sanskrit volumes by Egenes, and now I feel confident to complete the Coulson or any other university-level Sanskrit text book. I can also, for the first time in my life, read Bhagavad Gita in its original (with heavy assist by Wintrop Seargant's book). This has been a revelation. Good luck with your studies - and expect it to take several years of daily practice.

I wanted to learn Sanskrit to be able to read some of the Ayurvedic foundational texts, such as the Caraka Samhita. First off, there is no alphabet chart anywhere in the book. I would expect for a "beginners" Sanskrit they might start with or at least have a chart of the alphabet. But one is not included anywhere in the book. Also, as someone who has a couple foreign languages under there belt, I am used to a more methodical approach to language. This one seemed fairly random and frustrating. It is very academic, but interesting from a historical perspective, but not for my purposes.

Its not for a beginner. Its not organized in a way that lends comprehension. Excessive linguistic jargon. Introduction of complex sentences with no real explanation to make sense of them. Id say its more of a description of a language written for linguists rather than a book for people who actually want to learn the language. Im not an inexperienced language learner, and ive probably read self -teach language books for over 40 languages. Id rank this one at the very bottom.

Un ottimo libro (praticamente introvabile in Italia) a meno di €20. Quando l'ho visto, dopo mesi di ricerche, non riuscivo a crederci. Non conoscevo l'edizione con questa copertina, ma il contenuto è lo stesso delle precedenti. Le parole in sanscrito si leggono in modo chiaro. Contiene un dizionario Inglese/Sanscrito Sanscrito/Inglese più che sufficiente per lo svolgimento degli esercizi proposti.

Take a deep breath before embarking on this course - it's extremely thorough and takes no prisoners. If you're serious about learning Sanskrit, it's certainly the best textbook available in English, with very detailed explanations, and particular focus on syntax and compounds. It would be possible to raise gripes about this and that - for example, the grammatical explanations are very wordy and sometimes a bit indigestible, and I would have preferred the material divided into thirty rather than fifteen lessons - but nothing that would detract from my five-star rating. Each unit contains between 40 and 50 practice sentences, many of which startle with their strangeness ("But we are forest-dwellers, to whom riding in a chariot is unfamiliar" or "I do not of course truly have a passion for the ascetic's daughter"). If you learn these sentences well, you gain a good command of Sanskrit. I do have one big gripe about this edition - the devanagari text appears to have been reset in a different font, and in the process some errata have crept in (mainly missing vowel marks). I would recommend hunting down the original edition in a copy from the 1970s or the 1980s, in which there are no errors and the layout and fonts are far more attractive than in this edition.

Super dense to read. But it will absolutely take you from 0 to level 4 Sanskrit.

My parents are PHD - father and MPhil - mother in Sanskrit. I am a novice when it comes to Sanskrit as I never studied Sanskrit as a subject. However, as I intend to get to meaning of ancient texts and all, I bought this book. I was a little skeptical when I placed order as I am a science student and practitioner for 22 years. I wondered how it will help me. The Book as it says it will definitely take a person from level 1 to level 4 proficiency because it goes scientific, illustrative with examples and starts with the base. Easy to comprehend and understand it focus on word roots, basics of grammar and provides with vocabulary at the end. It explains tenses in detail with a focus on imperfect tenses as an example. Talks about Sandhi (which is at root of Hindi and Sanskrit). A must buy as a reference book. Not merely a crash course this is a book for bookshelf for long time!

A firstclass book about the Sanskrit language. No comparison. A gift to my father who is very interested. Thank You, Amazon!