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The Siddhanta Kaumudi or Ashtadhyayi of Panini

The document recommends using a modern textbook like Introduction to Sanskrit by Thomas Egenes for learning Sanskrit grammar, rather than traditional texts like the Ashtadhyayi or Siddhanta Kaumudi. It finds Egenes to be the gentlest and most pleasant book for self-study, with a carefully structured approach and well-chosen examples. Other recommended modern textbooks include those by Goldman & Goldman, Deshpande, and Coulson. While Panini's grammar is impressive, the document suggests traditional methods may not be best suited for most learners looking to read and write Sanskrit.

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Sisya MB
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589 views2 pages

The Siddhanta Kaumudi or Ashtadhyayi of Panini

The document recommends using a modern textbook like Introduction to Sanskrit by Thomas Egenes for learning Sanskrit grammar, rather than traditional texts like the Ashtadhyayi or Siddhanta Kaumudi. It finds Egenes to be the gentlest and most pleasant book for self-study, with a carefully structured approach and well-chosen examples. Other recommended modern textbooks include those by Goldman & Goldman, Deshpande, and Coulson. While Panini's grammar is impressive, the document suggests traditional methods may not be best suited for most learners looking to read and write Sanskrit.

Uploaded by

Sisya MB
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Siddhanta Kaumudi or Ashtadhyayi of Panini?

Neither. Use a good modern textbook. (E.g. Egenes.)

You say in the comments that you find M R Kale's A Higher Sanskrit Grammar too concise. I
assume this means you would like more elaboration, and a gentler pace. This is not
something you'll get from reading either the Ashtadhyayi directly (which is a mnemonic
device containing extremely compressed sūtras) or the Siddhanta Kaumudi or Laghu-
Siddhanta-Kaumudi which though more elaborate than the Ashtadhyayi (they rearrange its
rules in a different order, and add commentary), are still works in the old style.

I strongly recommend picking up a modern textbook instead.

In my experience, by far the gentlest and most pleasant book for Sanskrit self-study
is Introduction to Sanskrit by Thomas Egenes, published in two parts. The only possible
complaint may be that it is too gentle, but... if you feel that way, just read faster over the
easy parts. :-)

I found a great blog which has in-depth articles reviewing various Sanskrit
textbooks: Sanskrit Studio: Book Reviews (see also its Overview of Sanskrit Textbooks,
Grammars, and Study Materials for Students of Classical Sanskrit). The author there also
agrees that Egenes is a great book for self-study, with carefully thought-out structure and
well-chosen examples and exercises. (Review of Introduction to Sanskrit, Part 1 by Thomas
Egenes, Review of Introduction to Sanskrit, Part 2 by Thomas Egenes.)

Otherwise, there are lots of other good modern textbooks too, like those by Goldman &
Goldman, Deshpande, Coulson (all reviewed there), Aklujkar, etc. There is also the Indian
book Robert Antoine’s A Sanskrit Manual for High Schools, which I found beautifully crisp
and concise; you can look at it too and decide whether you prefer the gentle pace of Egenes
or the dense nature of Antoine.

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Some general words on the Ashtadhyayi / traditional vyākaraṇa system:

I don't know what your goals in learning Sanskrit are. But if, like most modern people, they
are chiefly to read Sanskrit and maybe write a little, then, great as my admiration is for
Panini and his staggering achievement, I'd strongly recommend avoiding the traditional
Ashtadhyayi-based methods (such as reading the Ashtadhyayi itself, or Siddhanta Kaumudi,
or the book very misleadingly titled "The Tested Easiest Method of Learning and Teaching
Sanskrit"). They are fine if your goal is to become a grammar expert, being able to write
down a sequence of rules that explains why a word has the form it does. But it's more
worthwhile to just learn as much Sanskrit as you need to start reading and appreciating the
beautiful Sanskrit literature (whatever it is you want to read), than to quest after
grammatical perfection (unless that is your sole ultimate goal).

Think of the example of English: is your time learning English more valuably spent
learning why the verb "go" takes forms like "going, went, gone", or to read enough of the
language that you know this naturally and don't even bother about it? You can go down the
former route, learning about history and morphological/phonological transformations, and
all that, but most of us have no need for it, and in fact for most of us that time could be
spent doing something better (like reading great writers). Try to do something similar in
Sanskrit, reading a lot of texts at your level, so that you'll master not just the forms of words
(which is what grammar gives you) but also typical style, good vocabulary, and things like
that which IMO matter more.

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