Samskrta-Subodhini: A Sanskrit Primer (Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia),   ISBN:9780891480792

Customer Rating: 

This is an excellent book.

Dr. Deshpande uses a simple and elegant language. He introduces topics in a series of parallel streams where every chapter contains a little of various topics and each topic picks up where it was left before.

This book feels like it was written for students wanting an easy introduction to Sanskrit Grammar. The book has plenty of exercises and vocabulary in all chapters.

Some grammar books require that the reader understands various technical grammar terms. While these books can be very useful for a comprehensive introduction, they are hard to parse for a beginner. This book introduces grammar in a totally different fashion. The rules are introduced as a matter of fact, with maximum simplicity and without unnecessary convolutions and accompanied by plenty of examples.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for an easy fun read of Sanskrit Grammar.

Customer Rating: 

Sanskrit learners are blessed with several outstanding introductory texts (I also highly recommend Goldman and Maurer). This work certainly belongs in that class. An extensive history of the language comes at the beginning of the book, and its early chapters are probably the simplest grammatical treatment that is available. Other pluses include thoughtfully chosen vocabulary, well and quickly incorporated into the abundant exercises, an elegant and easy-to-read typeface,(there charts of the many conjunct consonants are especially clear) and a very logical overall organization. His treatment of nominal compounding is excellent and easy to follow, which should be heartening to anyone who has find this a discouragingly difficult area in other courses. I do disagree with the author's approach to sandhi- it is a very leisurely introduction that is spread out over several chapters- better to face it head-on and get used to it in the beginning. Also, I agree with the other reviewers who have commented on a lack of an answer key for the exercises. It would have added considerably to the length of the book, but perhaps an answer key could be compiled and sold separately. It is certainly clear that many learners would want it.

Customer Rating: 

This is one of the best sanskrit manuals i have come accross. It has very clear explanations (even more clear than Maurer's excellent gammar), a lot of exercices, and the type of progressive approach that really enables you to assimilate the grammar. Its only flaw is that it does not provide a key for the exercises (which is understandable, you are supposed to use this in class with your teacher), but this is not as problematic as with other books.
I find it is a great working tool for self-study. No need to look forward. This is it.

Customer Rating: 

This book is way better than Perry's Sanskrit Primer; There are way more exercises for each chapter, many more illustrative examples, and by the way, he also addresses syntax. I also like Egenes' Into. to Sanskrit I & II, but this process is a lot slower and it's divided into 2 books whereas this has most of what you need in a single edition. It is definitely the Azenaze/Wheelock of Sanskrit. You do however need to know about Grammar and Linguistics but for anyone who has studied Wheelock or Azenaze this is a given. A teacher is definitely useful in learning this book but if you have already taken Greek or Latin (and completed it) you should be OK.

However (and this is no downer on this text), Egenes has some interesting info. in Part II of his text that I would highly suggest even if one gets this text, such as Sanskrit prosody, which is essential for memorization and smooth reciting of important texts. If you really want to learn Sanskrit (or any language)really well, be prepared to buy a lot of books because they all have their strong points; so where one lacks, the other will fill in the blanks. Hope this helps anyone who wants a Sanskrit book but doesn't want to go through a few lemons before finding a good text.

Customer Rating: 

This book is very well written with good set of exercises. The explanations are simple and clear. The author does a good job of keeping the reader progressing through the major concepts without derailing into grammatical trivia.