SanskritA grammar made to be learnt
Sanskrit grammar, व्याकरण (vyakarana), was described with extraordinary precision more than two thousand years ago by the grammarian Panini, and the language has been taught from that description ever since. The result is a grammar with very few surprises. Words follow their tables. Once a table is learnt, it holds for thousands of words.
The order to follow
- Sounds and letters: how Sanskrit pronunciation differs from Hindi.
- Cases: the idea behind all the noun tables.
- Noun tables: rama, lata and phala.
- Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it.
- Verb tables: path in five tenses and moods, and twenty common verbs.
- Sandhi: how sounds join.
- Numbers and avyaya, the words that never change.
How to use the tables
Do not try to read a table like a paragraph. Chant it aloud, across each row, until the rhythm carries it. Then write it from memory. Then put a different word through it. Finally, make small sentences with the forms. Twenty minutes a day in this way will take you through all eight pages in about two months; the eight week plan sets out the order.
What is left out
These pages give the regular patterns in their simplest form. Sanskrit has more noun tables (for words ending in i, u, ri and consonants), ten classes of verbs, participles, compounds and a full system of sandhi with exceptions. A school textbook or a standard grammar covers them. What is here is enough to read simple sentences and to begin working out easy verses.