Title: Reading Sanskrit: A Complete Step-by-Step Introduction with Texts from the Buddhist Tradition
Publication Date: November 2025

ISBN: 9780231221238

Page count: 640

Formats: Hardcover, E-book

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This textbook offers a fresh approach to learning Sanskrit, the ancient language at the heart of South Asia’s vast religious, philosophical, and literary heritage. Designed for independent learners and classrooms alike, it provides a uniquely in-depth and immersive introduction to the language, exploring a rich selection of Sanskrit texts from the Buddhist tradition.

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Unlike most textbooks, Reading Sanskrit devotes as much attention to the formation of individual words (morphology) as to the various, frequently unfamiliar ways those words combine to form sentences (syntax). This approach equips students with invaluable linguistic insights into Sanskrit usage and style, enabling them to engage more confidently with original Sanskrit texts.

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Challenging topics are broken down into manageable sections and spread across multiple lessons. Each lesson includes plainly worded explanations, abundant annotated examples, and vocabulary notes providing the relevant cultural context needed to understand the ideas and narratives introduced in the exercises and readings. Audio recordings and other supplementary online resources help students improve their pronunciation and enhance accessibility further.

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Reading Sanskrit draws from the Buddhist tradition’s vast Sanskrit corpus to present a thematically coherent collection of texts covering a wide range of literary genres, including narrative, philosophical, and poetic writings. This unique choice of source material provides an engaging approach to language learning, immersing the student in one of the major strands of South Asian spirituality and culture while highlighting Buddhism's connection to other religious and literary traditions.

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Onus on Syntax and Usage

 

​​​​​Traditionally, Sanskrit textbooks place a heavy emphasis on the topic of morphology, which deals with the formation of individual words, such as the conjugation of verbs and the declension of nouns. While this form-centered approach is not without justification, given the intricacy of this important topic, it often comes at the expense of something just as crucial: syntax or usage—the various and often unfamiliar ways words are put together to form meaningful sentences. Reading Sanskrit offers a fresh approach that places greater emphasis on this topic, presenting essential aspects of Sanskrit syntax, usage, or style in a systematic and carefully paced fashion.

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Basic syntactical concepts covered in other books—such as the functions of the eight grammatical cases, participles, or compound words—are examined in greater depth, enriching even simple topics with helpful linguistic commentary. Reading Sanskrit also features dedicated sections on a broad range of crucial topics related to Sanskrit usage typically overlooked in other works, such as substantivized adjectives (adjectives used as nouns—a common occurrence in ancient Indo-European languages), long compounds of three or more words (one of the most striking and challenging features of the language), circumstantial adjectives (adjectives bearing an adverbial function), or common idiomatic expressions, including the various constructions formed with abstract nouns.

 

Greater Accessibility

 

​​​Readers will appreciate Reading Sanskrit’s learner-centered approach, which assumes no prior familiarity with classical Indo-European languages. The textbook offers detailed lesson explanations, taking care to define basic grammatical concepts (e.g., transitivity, apposition, grammatical voice) as well as more advanced linguistic notions (non-finite verb forms, verbal adjectives, periphrasis, etc.). Every important idea in the lesson sections are illustrated by one or more examples, drawn, from lesson eleven onward, from authentic Sanskrit texts. These illustrations, which students might otherwise find difficult to grasp unassisted, have been made as clear and accessible as possible: Sanskrit words are inserted in the translation in parentheses without sandhi (the rules of euphonic combination, a major hurdle for beginner students); tricky noun and verb forms are parsed (analyzed); where useful, a literal, word-for-word translation is provided alongside the idiomatic English translation; and examples are frequently followed by explanatory notes.

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Discussion of important topics is divided into smaller, more manageable units given over several chapters. While some textbooks adopt this approach for Devanāgarī (the script used to write Sanskrit in modern-day India) and the aforementioned rules of euphonic combination (sandhi), Reading Sanskrit extends this strategy to a wider range of crucial topics, including compounds (such as tatpuruṣa-s and bahuvrīhi-s, described in four sections each), subordinate clauses (adverbial and adjectival, discussed separately), past participles (in -ta/-na) and present participles (described in two sections each), or nominal derivation, with a total of nine sections dedicated to the main primary and secondary suffixes.

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​Finally, accessibility and general usability are enhanced by the special care given to the book’s layout and typography. Lessons are divided into clearly delineated sections, each headed by their own section title. Each paragraph within these sections is numbered, and these reference numbers are used extensively to guide students back to previously learned concepts, serving also as clues in the reading notes.

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Extensive Exposure to Original Texts ​

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Familiarizing students with original Sanskrit texts from the outset lays the groundwork for their eventual move beyond the structured setting of a first-year textbook. In Reading Sanskrit, exposure to original texts is not limited to the readings given at the end of each chapter but extends, from lesson fourteen onward, to basic translation exercises. By drawing on the Buddhist tradition’s vast collection of prose writings, Reading Sanskrit is able to fill its translation exercises with idiomatic and frequently memorable sentences, thereby minimizing reliance on artificial examples of the author’s own making. More than mere grammar drills, these bit-sized samples of Sanskrit literature are often as worthy of study and discussion as the readings themselves. In many cases, exercises in earlier lessons are also based on authentic texts, reworked to accommodate the reader’s limited vocabulary and grammatical knowledge.

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The readings draw from a diverse body of source material, including prose writings, maxims, and texts belonging to the two central genres of śāstra (didactic or philosophical works) and kāvya (belles-lettres, poetry), mostly absent from other first-year textbooks. Reading Sanskrit features kāvya works, a major draw of Sanskrit literature as a whole, more prominently than ever before, finding in the clear, comparatively less ornate style of early Sanskrit poets like Aśvaghoṣa many passages suitable for beginner students. Each reading is accompanied by comprehensive notes, including cultural asides that provide context and enrich its overall flavor, along with linguistic explanations and clues designed to ease potential difficulties. 

 

Unique, Buddhist Sources

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​​​​​​For their readings and examples, existing Sanskrit textbooks draw almost exclusively from texts belonging to the Hindu (Brāhmaṇical) tradition. Reading Sanskrit sets itself apart by introducing the reader to the other great thought-world of ancient South Asian civilization, drawing most of its readings and examples from texts belonging to the Buddhist tradition. This unique choice has allowed for the selection of a thematically coherent collection of texts covering a wide range of literary genres.

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Buddhist stories and ideas run as a thread through the textbook’s readings, exercises, and lesson illustrations, linking them into a thematically cohesive whole. Narrative passages deal primarily with the tale of the Buddha’s life, from his birth and life as a royal kṣatriya to his final enlightenment following the climactic episode of his victory over Māra. Philosophical discussions cover a wide range of topics, including the path of ethical and mental cultivation, the cycle of death and rebirth (saṃsāra), the power of past actions (karman), the transiency of sensual or mundane experiences, the way of life of the ascetic (śramaṇa), or the inspiring example set by great beings.

Prose texts are drawn from Buddhist sūtra-s (“discourses”), avadāna-s (“edifying legends”), and the Saṅghabhedavastu (“Chapter on Schism”), an extensive chronological account of the Buddha’s life. Poetic texts include passages from Aśvaghoṣa’s famous Buddhacarita (“Acts of the Buddha”), Āryaśūra’s Jātakamālā (“Garland of Birth-Stories”), Kṣemendra’s Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā (“Wish-Fulfilling Vine of Bodhisattva Tales”), and verses selected from various anthologies, including the Saduktikarṇāmṛta (“Nectar of Good Words for the Ears”), Subhāṣitāvalī (“Garland of Well-Said Verses”), and Subhāṣitaratnakośa (“Treasury of Well-Turned Verses”). Together with the Udānavarga (“Groups of Utterances”), a collection of famous Buddhist aphorisms, these anthologies also supply the book with its large selection of didactic subhāṣita-s (maxims). The Bodhicaryāvatāra (“Entry into the Practice Leading to Awakening”), Śāntideva’s celebrated classic on the bodhisattva’s way of life, provide the main samples of philosophical literature, with a few more texts drawn from the Bhāvanākrama (“The Stages of Cultivation”), Ratnāvalī (“Garland of Jewels”), and other similar texts.

​Reading Sanskrit takes great care not to present the Buddhist tradition and its literature in a vacuum. The reader is introduced to India’s wider religious and literary world through the writings of a number of non-Buddhist authors, often echoing some of the same perennial themes, such as Kālidāsa on the innate compassion of great beings, Bhartṛhari on the transiency of saṃsāric existence, or Kṛṣṇamiśra on the destructive power of anger. The reader’s curiosity for the vast world of mainstream Indian thought, mythology, and culture is further stimulated by Reading Sanskrit’s many notes and cultural asides; the student learns about the scriptures, ritual practices, and pantheon of the ancient Vedic religion, Upaniṣadic philosophy, the six orthodox schools of thought (darśana), the Brāhmaṇical ideal of the four stages of life (āśrama), the three worlds of classical cosmology (tri-loka), the episode of Kāma’s burning by Śiva (contrasted with the Buddha’s own victory over the god of love), the story of the two great epics (and their parallels in the Buddhist jātaka tradition), and much more.

 

Appendices and Extra Learning Resources

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​​​In addition to the reference tables for common Devanāgarī ligatures, core sandhi rules, and inflectional paradigms found in other textbooks, the appendices contain unique reference tables for quick review of the ten verb classes (gaṇa-s), tenses and moods, non-finite verb forms, common nominal suffixes, and the four types of compounds together with their many subdivisions. The appendices also include a discussion of kāvya that introduces the reader to the most common figures of speech (alaṃkāra) and the basics of Sanskrit prosody, including the various meters encountered in the textbook’s many verse readings.

 

The main highlight of Reading Sanskrit’s appendices is its extensive vocabulary notes, which flesh out the rich cultural background or doctrinal content of some of the exercise vocabulary with accessible summaries based in scholarly findings from the fields of Buddhist and South Asian studies. Readers are not expected to possess any prior knowledge of Buddhism; these vocabulary notes provide the student with all the information needed to make sense of the Buddhist stories and ideas presented here and understand their connection to other religious and literary traditions.

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To help students refine their pronunciation, the author has created a collection of recordings for the textbook’s vocabulary, exercises, and readings, enabling a more well-rounded program of self-study. Other resources include a large collection of digital (Anki) flashcards covering every facet of the textbook’s course, annotated answer keys available on demand, worksheet for the textbook’s exercises, a collection of ancient Chinese translations for students with a background in that language, and a collection of the textbook’s subhāṣita-s for review.