
Learn Sanskrit Online - yati
http://www.learnsanskrit.org/
======
Techasura
The point is what would you do after learning or may be spending real good
amount of time with it, what is the real need. I learnt sanskrit for more than
6 years and have passed upto threeeteeya(an exam to test your sanskrit skill).
When i learn something i should be able to converse about it with many people
as i can and help spread the knowledge or information. But learning an old
language like sanskrit. What i found after learning the language is there is a
lot of history which doesn't fetch any real world gain to my career, my social
life, my finances or even recognition from a worldwide community.

~~~
chattoraj
Listen to this man. Anyone who studies a dead language for “real-world gain”
will probably end up disappointed.

The only real reason to learn is so you can read old books in that language.
And you might get a few points of social prestige, but that alone generally
won't make up for the hours and years you put into it.

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akprasad
Oh, hey, I'm on Hacker News.

I'm surprised and a little embarrassed to see my site here, but I'll take the
opportunity to address some of the things y'all have mentioned.

To people proposing language alternatives: a totally fair point, and more
power to you. I made this site back in college when I was studying Sanskrit
for the first time, and I was disappointed by the lack of resources available
online. The site started as a series of study notes and sort of mutated into a
"course" ... but that course is incomplete and has been in desperate need of
repair for some time.

About the PHP errors: yeah, sorry about that! I started out with PHP because I
knew pretty much nothing about web programming and needed something that "just
worked." The new version of the site, which has been in development hell for a
year, is in Flask (Python). I haven't touched the PHP stuff in two years, and
I usually need gloves and a whole lot of disinfectant to do so.

Why learn online: because the books are usually disappointing or expensive.

Why Sanskrit: I just find it particularly beautiful. The statement that r0h1n
took issue with is stated grandiosely, but I stand by it.

On "Hindutva nonsense": I empathize strongly with their motivations, but I
agree that most of the ink spilled in the name of Sanskrit is vacuous and
hyperbolic.

For those wondering about the fuss: I particularly enjoy kāvya [1], usually
because it's just beautiful poetry [2] but also because it shows off some
fancy linguistic acrobatics, the likes of which I haven't seen in any other
language [3].

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavya](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavya)
[2]: Citation needed, but I like Kālidāsa in particular. One of the least
horrible translations of one of his most beautiful works: [http://www.sacred-
texts.com/hin/sha/sha17.htm](http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sha/sha17.htm)
[3]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishupala_Vadha#Linguistic_ing...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishupala_Vadha#Linguistic_ingenuity)
for some examples.

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wslh
If you liked this post you might like this incredible sanskrit web site:
[http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/en/english-home/](http://www.sanskrit-
sanscrito.com.ar/en/english-home/)

It includes translation of sacred texts.

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r0h1n
_Why_ would someone, Indian or not, want to learn Sanskrit online?

~~~
slaxman
I am a ployglot and know several indian and foreign languages. My favourite is
Sanskrit. Why? Once I learnt Sanskrit, esp. the grammar, learning other
languages was really easy. You easy almost all languages have their roots from
Sanskrit. The grammar rules for German and Finnish, for example, are a subset
of Sanskrit.

~~~
angerman
Could you please elaborate on this a little more? How did German and Finnish
derive from Sanskrit? Could you give examples?

~~~
nkuttler
Derived from Sanskrit is probably wrong, but German, Finnish and Sanskrit
belong to the Indo-European language family
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-
european](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-european)). Sanskrit is a very
old language in this family tree ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-
European_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-
European_language)) and thus very close to the common ancestor. Being close to
the ancestor probably means that it shares many traits with it that were
inherited by other Indo-European languages.

Kinda like how knowing Latin makes it easier to learn Romanic languages
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanic_languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanic_languages)),
but Romanic languages were really derived from Latin.

~~~
chattoraj
Finnish is Uralic, not Indo-European.

~~~
nkuttler
Oops, thanks. For a possible relationship [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-
Uralic_languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Uralic_languages)

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tokenadult
Oh, gosh, the usual Hindutva nonsense. Let me first of all dispel any notion
that I don't like learning languages "for fun." See my Hacker News user
profile for more details on what languages I have learned. I have learned
enough facts about Sanskrit and the various languages that are written in the
Devanagari alphabet to know

1) The written history of Sanskrit is much less that 3,000 years long. (The
historiography of India is _hard,_ because most of the writing materials used
in ancient India were perishable, and thus much less preserved than the
written records of other parts of the world that are equally old, but plainly
the _Vedas_ and other texts from ancient India are less than 3,000 years old.)

2) Yes, Sanskrit is an Indo-European language, which means it brings to mind
features of other Indo-European languages. Each cognate language makes it
easier to learn other cognate languages in turn. So you could gain an
advantage in learning Sanskrit, for example, by learning German, Russian, and
Greek first (as I have). Or you could learn Sanskrit first, as many secondary
school students in India have done. But while learning each language, you
might still ask yourself, "What texts am I going to read, or what
conversations will I have, now that I know this language?" Sanskrit doesn't
have a particularly high degree of utility, if that is what you are looking
for in a new language, for day-by-day communication today.

3) Finnish is not an Indo-European language, so it is not cognate to Sanskrit,
and therefore learning Sanskrit doesn't provide much advantage for learning
Finnish. Come on, get the basis facts right. Learning Estonian would provide a
huge boost for learning Finnish, of course. Learning Hungarian, Turkish, or
even Mongolian would provide more remote advantages for learning Finnish.

4) Learning Tamil, Malayalam, or other languages of south India usually
categorized as Dravidian (not cognate with Indo-European) languages just might
give you a deeper understanding of India and its cultural heritage than the
same effort spent learning Sanskrit. That's something to think about if you
like India and its culture, as I do.

5) If you would like to learn a language that maps well in its linguistic
structure to first-order logic notation, I strongly recommend Chinese (Modern
Standard Chinese or some other Sinitic language) over any Indo-European
language, including Sanskrit. All languages have arbitrary grammatical rules.
Strictly speaking, no language is more "logical" than any other. But if you
like a one-to-one correspondence between spoken language sentence structure
and the usual first-order logic notation, Chinese is a good place to start.

~~~
varchar
There is large body of ancient Sanskrit literature that is very interesting
and ubique. Some of the poetry and prose like Kalidasa, Jayadeva etc. are
exquisite.

If you are interested in Yoga, Meditation - you will appreciate the ability
study the original texts. Yoga is now a global phenomenon and I personally
know many people in the west and elsewhere study Patanjali and other texts.

There is great body of ancient knowledge (like Upanishads) on philosophy, the
nature of mind, ego and the true nature one's self which is very unique.

The original texts for the ancient science of Ayurveda are in Sanskrit. There
are many good universities in India that offer degrees in Ayurveda and
Sanskrit is a prerequisite for studying Ayurveda.

There are several ancient astronomical and mathematical texts in Sanskrit like
Sulaba Sutra etc. which are very interesting.

In the Indian tradition all rituals and rites of passage like birth, naming,
marriage etc. are in Sanskrit and used on a daily basis although very few
people speak the language.

India has an ancient system of classical music which is actively pursued and
enjoyed by millions. Many compositions that people learn and sing are in
Sanskrit.

~~~
cscurmudgeon
tokenadult is a known Chinese anti-Indian shill.

------
rlvesco7
I always thought it was interesting that Sanskrit could almost be a computer
language: [http://uttishthabharata.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/sanskrit-
pr...](http://uttishthabharata.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/sanskrit-programming/)

------
wintageeil
To people who wants to know how scientific Sanskrit language is and also about
how we are missing it's essence:

[http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Sanskrit.htm](http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Sanskrit.htm)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQ4hIG9w7c](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQ4hIG9w7c)

[http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262393](http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262393)

BTW, I am from OK and travelled to India in the context of ancient real
values. Travelled to many parts of Himalayas and learned bit about the
language, quite amazed how such a great language like Sanskrit really has lost
its lime light. Many great prescriptions of Medicine, Science, and Astrology
are hidden in the great language. I am not trying to convince anyone but just
thought of sharing my thoughts. For those of you, who have learnt it at their
schools mostly read it as subject, not really learned its real value.

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laichzeit0
One of the reasons I'd like to, time permitting, learn Sanskrit would be to
enjoy the Upanishads, which my favorite philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer,
regarded so highly:

"If the reader has also received the benefit of the Vedas, the access to which
by means of the Upanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege which this
still young century (1818) may claim before all previous centuries, if then
the reader, I say, has received his initiation in primeval Indian wisdom, and
received it with an open heart, he will be prepared in the very best way for
hearing what I have to tell him. It will not sound to him strange, as to many
others, much less disagreeable; for I might, if it did not sound conceited,
contend that every one of the detached statements which constitute the
Upanishads, may be deduced as a necessary result from the fundamental thoughts
which I have to enunciate, though those deductions themselves are by no means
to be found there."

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angryJohn
I learnt sanskrit, when i was in school... very nice language actually.... I
like reading short moral stories in sanskrit a lot.....!!!!

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jaseemabid
I wish the duolingo guys hire this fellow and make it easy for all of us :/

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Ihmahr
Php errors everywhere!

~~~
r4vik
no, that's Sanskrit

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wirrbel
its great that such a resource exists. However when you want to learn a
language that is still used and has similar grammar features you might want to
opt for something like icelandic or polish.

Then also Turkish (although not indo-european) might be interesting since it
has a really logical and regular grammar.

