In the course of teaching Sanskrit in our Institute in Canada, it has been interesting to observe over the years, that even in English speaking countries there is an extraordinary interest to learn Sanskrit. It has been surprising that more people of non-Indian origin, such as those from West Indies, Guyana, Surinam, Fiji, Europe and North America, are learning Sanskrit than the people who actually come from India. And, among these non-Indians, it is mostly the adults who are learning Sanskrit. Thus, accordingly, these facts reflect on the content and makeup of the this book.
When it comes to learning Sanskrit by English speaking people, the main objective the learners have in mind is to comprehend the Hindu Culture and to be able to read and understand the Hindu scriptures, yoga philosophies, ayurvedic literature, the astrological, adhyatmic and classical writings... and so on, that normally exist as Sanskrit Shlokas. It is rarely their main objective to do serious writing and speaking in Sanskrit, for they don't have much opportunity to write to or to speak with someone in that language. Consequently, special attention has been given in this work to prepare the reader to be able to comprehend the Sanskrit Shlokas.
It is the glorious literature written by the immortal poets that attracts English speaking learners to the Sanskrit language. It is the profound but poetic sweetness and the melodic nature of the Anustubha metre of the Sanskrit language that makes its learning so very interesting. It is its unique chemical, mathematical and digital nature, its well developed system of grammar, intricate compounding style and highly flexible character of composition that makes the Sanskrit writings so original to study and enjoy. It is the richest word-power of Sanskrit that makes its writings so very ornate and splendid. Sanskrit is by far the most poetic and florid language in the world. It has survived for thousands of years and on the way has given birth to numerous other great languages. Naturally, therefore, explaining Sanskrit grammar with numerous examples, along with copious use of the ap-propriate Shlokas, has spontaneously become an important aspect of this book.
Sanskrit has been found by various research scholars to be very closely related to several European languages, quite possibly a parent to them. It is also noteworthy that though the rich Tamil language did not originate from Sanskrit, a very strong influence by the latter on the former is unmistakable. In our Sanskrit classes, the students who speak Tamil and the European languages find it educational to associate the words or grammatical aspects of their respective languages with Sanskrit and to discover or trace their correlation. In this book specific Shlokas and examples have been subtly selected that contain such Sanskrit words which possess a relation with these languages.
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