A Sanskrit Primer

Let's face it: Sanskrit is just not the kind of language for which it makes any sense to learn cute dialogues and touristy phrases like "Where is the train station?" or "I need an eye doctor." The latter may, in fact, come in handy when you first learn the Devanagari script, but what motivates you to learn Sanskrit anyway? There is a very good reason to become familiar with the language, namely the fact that many contemporary translations of Sanskrit writings, most notably of the Bhagavad Gita, take incredible liberties in passing off as translations wordings that hardly even qualify as paraphrases, and often just plain misrepresent the text. To get to the actual meaning, you need to learn the language, but there is no shortcut to doing so. Sanskrit often uses cases, such as the instrumental case or the locative, in order to express something that in other languages would be done with prepositions. There is not just a singular and plural; there is also a "dual" form for both nouns and verbs. In the Devanagari script, combinations of letters form new symbols; when words follow each other in certain sequences, the vowels change: e.g. the stem "bhu" ("to exist"), yields the noun "bhavas" ("existence"), which, however, if followed by a word such as "vidyate" ("it is found"), switches to "bhavo." I am mentioning all of this simply to make the case that, yes, Perry's Sanskrit Primer is a hard book to work through. But that's only because Sanskrit, if treated seriously, is a hard language. It takes work to get through it, and if you're not even used to simple ancient Indo-European languages, such as Greek or Latin, it's going to be twice as hard. But I don't see how you can really do an adequate job of it without committing yourself to good old-fashioned memorization. Perry's Primer asks a lot of you. It treats you with an expectation of maturity. But, forgive me for stating this so bluntly, if you're not ready to live up to Perry's expectations, I'm not sure you're ready to study Sanskrit seriously.

For experienced students of classical languages, Perry's Primer is the only way to learn Sanskrit. The language is presented in an orderly and exhaustive way. Each lesson is arranged as a series of numbered paragraphs covering different aspects of the grammar in thorough detail; at the end of the lesson is a vocabulary list and then two sets of translation exercises, one from Sanskrit to English and one from English to Sanskrit. There is no baby talk, no dumbing down of the grammar. For this reason, the book may be considered the best on the subject, and students with a background in Latin and/or classical Greek will find it stimulating. For anyone without these linguistic attainments, however, the book's greatest virtue -- its concision -- is likely to seem a fault and a hindrance to learning. For example, the declension of nouns is introduced in Lesson II in the following manner: an example noun is presented in a table with three columns labeled "singular", "dual", and "plural", and three rows labeled "N.", "Acc.", and "Voc." By way of explanation, Perry tacks on the following paragraph: "Force of cases. 1. The nominative is casus subjectivus. 2. The accusative is casus objectivus, denoting chiefly the nearer or direct, sometimes however the more remote, object; sometimes also the terminus ad quem, and extent of time and space." -- and not a word more. Depending on the student's background, the conciseness of this explanation will be greeted either with appreciation, or with resentment. If you have no problem with "casus subjectivus", "casus objectivus" and "terminus ad quem", this book is for you. (Of course, if you are the kind of person picking up a 19th-century primer to study an ancient Indo-European language, you very likely WILL have no problem with these terms.) You will also enjoy this book, even if the terms give you pause, as long as on reflection you can figure out what they mean and require no further explanation. But if, on the other hand, you need a refresher on such questions as the difference between a subject and an object, or do not care to have your grammar given to you in Latin guise, then you will find this book too difficult. A previous reviewer said that Perry's explanations are "unclear". I suppose he was referring to passages such as the one quoted above. In reality, the difficulty posed by such explanations is not their clarity, but their accessibility. They are not unclear: they are merely arcane. In other words, if you are familiar with the terms used, you will understand right away what is meant, and will breathe a sigh of relief at not having to slog through some silly stuff about "the dog bites the man" and "the man bites the dog". But if you are not familiar with the terms, or are not in a position to figure out what they mean, you are likely to find yourself perplexed. Another case in point is the presentation of the alphabet. Perry gives only a table of the letters and then an explanation of the way they

For any serious student of Sanskrit Perry's Sanskrit Primer is indispensable. Admittedly, the language is a bit dated, and you have to be willing to learn the argot of classical philology, but the effort is well worth it. Perry dissects the language and reveals all its glorious complexity. Moreover, it was written to accompany Whitney's grammar and is an excellent preparation for Lanman's reader. More "modern" approaches to Sanskrit (e.g. Teach Yourself Sanskrit) miss there mark by dumbing down the grammar of the language, something you'll regret as you go along. Perry's is the real deal.