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

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Contrary to the author's suggestions I am using the book to study Sanskrit myself. It is excellent for that too although granted I speak two language of the Indo Aryan family - Hindi and Bengali. I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to begin learning Sanskrit.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: Given that the book is a part of the "Michigan Papers on South and South-East Asia", I was a bit apprehensive about it being too scholarly and unsuitable for a beginner like me, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it otherwise. The author has the rare combination of an authentic grooming in the traditional Sanskrit learning and a long experience of teaching the language in the West to western students, and this shows in the book to the reader's advantage. Nevertheless, it is a book that demands diligence and effort from the reader. I liked the way the book provides a set of relevant words in every chapter which are used immediately afterwards in the exercises, for this allowed me to quickly refer to them for their meanings. The exercises are also very well thought out, though I wish the author had provided answers to them so that a student could bolster his confidence by verifying his answers immediately, but all in all, the book is well worth the money I spent on it.

Rating:
Summary: At last, a serviceable textbook of sanskrit
Review: I admit that I was more than a little apprehensive when I first ordered Deshpande's Samskrtasubodhini, since my first textbook by Lanman dated from the 19th century and featured a microscopic devanagari typeface, the compound letters illegible even with my trusty magnifying glass. Deshpande's elegant and readable devanagari font seems rather like eating a box of chocolates after becoming used to far more spartan fare. Deshpande's extremely competent text makes me suspicious that he is not making his users scrabble hard enough to grip the language, but what the heck. Sanskrit is difficult enough to get hold of, as it is, so a thorough and competent text will probably work out, in the long run. Even with Deshpande's throughness, Panini's grammar is still quite a way off, but Deshpande's graspable and intelligently arranged text--perfect as a preparation for the Whitney grammar--makes the entryway into to this great language less arduous, and probably Panini's Astadhyayi less difficult once one comes to take it up. I just wish that my first text had been Samskrtasubodhini.

Rating:
Summary: Methodical, patient, clear
Review: This is a very well thought-out text. The author states that it is not intended for self-study, but if you have a facility for languages, have studied an inflection-driven language such as Latin and have had a year of a modern language that uses the Devanagri writing system, you should be ok. The format is similar to that of Moreland and Fleischer's Latin text, with brief lessons covering single-serving chunks of morphology, followed by vocabulary and exercises in translation and composition.

Rating:
Summary: A steep learning curve
Review: This is definitely a comprehensive book. The author delves directly into the grammar and vocabulary, all without ever using transliterations. I had already learnt basic Hindi before picking this up, so I knew most of the script, but I could see that being a real problem. It's definitely competent. The learning curve is very steep, though, and it seems almost as if it would be better used as accompaniment to classes.