________________
Modern Spoken Sanskrit
the actual sutras of Pāņini, this is the book. Ballantyne's explanatory notes increase the usability of his translation.
The Amarakosa is far and away the most widely used of kosas, which served traditionally as dictionaries. It, like other such kosas, is a versified vocabulary. Thus one did not look up a word as in our alphabetically arranged dictionaries, but rather memorized the entire kosa. Groups of synonyms make up the verses, and the arrangement is by subjects. This type of lexicon has been used for milleniums in India, while alphabetically arranged lexicons have arisen only in the last couple centuries, since Western contacts. "Consequently an old Pandit having mastered the versified vocabulary of Sanskrit easily understands or scans any difficult verse given to him without the aid of a Dictionary." (p. 1). Today's Western student may still be able to achieve a memory feat like this with the help of "superlearning."
Modern Spoken Sanskrit
A Companion to Contemporary Sanskrit, by Hajime Nakamura. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973 (published for The Eastern Institute, Tokyo).
Conversational Sanskrit: A Microwave Approach, by N. D. Krishnamurthy, U. P. Upadhyaya, Jayanthi Manohar, and N. Shylaja. Bangalore: Adarsha Educational and Social Service Trust, [1984].
23
Nakamura's Companion is a short work (74 p.) on Sanskrit as spoken by pandits in India today. From the preface: “Sanskrit is not a dead language, but a living language... I have found some discrepancies between living Sanskrit and some explanations in Western works . . . Taking these items into consideration, I have prepared an introductory work to living Sanskrit, which is earnestly spoken by learned persons even nowadays." Conversational Sanskrit is a Sanskrit course in 50 lessons (392 p.), a "maiden attempt to popularize Sanskrit as the spoken language." Its exercises adapt Sanskrit to everyday speech. "We trust that our efforts in providing a simplified Sanskrit for this purpose will be appreciated... Only simple structures required for day-to-day conversations have been used in this book."
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
