Teach Yourself Sanskrit (Paperback)

There is a useful, pull-out sandhi grid early in the book, that shows consonants and vowels. This does not show all possible combinations, but most of the basic ones. This is a hard thing to remember (rather like learning the difference between written English and spoken English, where the pronunciations colloquially vary depending upon accent as well as position in the sentence or the speed of talking). Sanskrit is a langauge where it isn't necessary to learn the entire alphabetic structure for writing at the outset -- Coulson recommends this as a gradual process, and I agree with this idea. The primary Sanskrit font described and used here (a common Sanskrit font throughout India, although far from the only one) is the nagari script.

Sanskrit is a part of the Indo-European family of languages, but that being said, it is vastly different from English, and the student of this book would be well-advised to make sure she or he has a good command of English grammar ideas, and the willingness to not attempt to apply them to the Sanskrit sentences and passages presented.

Coulson in his introduction makes the distinction between a learned language and a natural one, as well as a dead language and a living one. Sanskrit to a Western student is both a learned and a dead language; to the late Sanskrit writers, it was both learned and living -- very roughly parallel to the Latin used in academic circles in the Middle Ages, a language still living in a sense, but not a natural language for anyone. Sanskrit has much greater fluidity and variation over its incredibly long history; Coulson introduces bits and pieces of these strands, but stays fairly close to a classical Sanskrit represented by the most common and widespread of religious texts.

There would be only one item where I really feel I must take marks off, and that would be the constant use of transliteration into Latinate script rather than using the Sanskrit throughout the models. While almost all of the reading passages are in the Sanskrit basic font style, the various grammar points (conjugation and declension charts, etc.) are presented in transliteration, which made things a bit more difficult for me, as I'd sometimes have to struggle not only to remember the Sanskrit but also the code for the transliteration (which, of course, never coincides with the transliteration paradigms in other langauge texts I've studied).

This book is designed both for classroom use and for self-study. Based on my readings and comparisons of my translations on texts such as the Rig Veda with other, published translation, this book has helped me gain a working knowledge of Sanskrit, and provides a useful text for review on a periodic basis.

It includes an answer key to all the major exercises, a guide for further study, an introduction to prose/poetry constructions, and a useful vocabulary glossary.

As a textbook for a taught course it is much more effective, but beware that the grammar section at the back is not particularly thorough - best to buy a separate grammar - and that some editions (mine included) have several errors in the devanagari script. Also that the sentences set for translation get pretty dull and are not adequate practice on their own, even if you were brave enough to tackle the English into Sanskrit ones (again, the problem is space: a longer course could have included several passages at each level).

Overall, though, this deserves 4 stars for being basically the only Sanskrit language guide you're likely to be able to find with any kind of ease. Expect it to take a while, look out for typos, and preferably find a teacher too!