Editorial Reviews
Introduction to Sanskrit, by Thomas Egenes, Ph.D.
India Times
The India Times endorses this book and strongly recommends it for use by Sanskrit
students. . . It is the finest textbook for beginners. —The India Times, February, 1992
Number One Introductory Sanskrit Text
Introduction to Sanskrit, by Prof. Thomas Egenes, is now undoubtedly the number one
introductory Sanskrit text in use in the world today. —theosophy.net/hct/hct9703.pdf
A Useful Primer
A useful primer acceptable to all Sanskrit students, no matter what their orientation. It
fills a real need in supplying an approach which does not rush past the all-important
foundations of ample practice with simple sentences. – David Reigle, Sanskrit Professor
Student-friendly Text
A didactically well-structured and student-friendly text. After working through 18
chapters filled with clear explanations, study tips, exercises, diagrams, and vocabulary
lists, you will be able to unravel classical Sanskrit texts in the original script. This book is
for everybody who wants to become acquainted with the wealth of the Sanskrit literature
and who does not want to depend completely on translations. Those who want to engage
themselves in the study of this discipline will want to own this book.
—Prof. G. Van Haren, The Netherlands
Best Book on the Market
Whether you are a teacher or a student, this is best book on the market. It includes the
alphabet, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Both Devanagari script and
transliteration are used. —sanskrit.bhaarat.com/Dale/Books
Goodreads
This is a great tool for those who want to learn Sanskrit but lack a very thorough
understanding of linguistics. Many Sanskrit textbooks have been criticized for
presupposing a certain level of linguistic sophistication, which was usually developed
through Latin and Greek courses, before attempting to tackle Sanskrit. Egenes realized
that many people interested in learning Sanskrit were English speakers with no
background in synthetic languages. So what he has created with his "Introduction to
Sanskrit," as he mentions in the introductory chapter, is a sort of pre-primer, in so much
as this book is an introduction to an introduction. After going through Part 1 (Part 2 of his
series focuses mostly on reading practice and prosody, I believe), you will be ready to
move on to a more traditional, dense textbook, like Goldman's "Devavanipravesika,"
Coulson's "Teach Yourself Sanskrit," Desphande's "SamskrtaSubodhini," etc.
"Introduction to Sanskrit" is not, though, a piece of fluff which will teach you very little,
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in a mind-numbingly slow fashion. By the end of the book you will have learned: the
devanagari syllabary, the seven cases and how to decline many types of nouns, a healthy
number of verb tenses, how to recognize how to make sandhi changes, and built up a
good-sized vocabulary. And as someone who was an absolute neophyte when they came
to this book, the challenge is daunting! Sandhi, if not handled gradually like Egenes did,
could be enough to drive many people away from Sanskrit. But thankfully, Egenes
approached all of the difficult aspects of Sanskrit with sympathy for the learner
(especially the autodidact, which many budding Sanskritists are these days); he paced the
book so that it would challenging enough to hold our interest, but without alienating us
with pedantry. It was very rewarding to know that after completing this book that I could
comprehend, with the aid of a dictionary, sections of the "Bhagavad Gita."
So with that I will conclude my rambling with simply this: Egene's "Introduction to
Sanskrit" is a godsend to the student of Sanskrit, and I'd encourage anyone interested in
learning the language to study with it before moving on to any other text.
University of Colorado
I have been using Introduction to Sanskrit in my first-year class at the University of
Colorado at Boulder. After an unhappy experiment with another first-year text, I have
been very satisfied with this one. The students like it, and it works well for them. —
Susan Trip, University of Colorado
Sanskrit Granthalaya Bookstore
"Egenes is the best that I have seen" —IANC's Sanskrit Granthalaya Bookstore
Hinduism Today
If you're interested in do-it-at-home learning of basic Sanskrit, this is among the best
books we've seen. It is calibrated to small learning steps with appropriate exercises. The
descriptions of grammatical rules is clear. . . great place to start. —Hinduism Today,
September, 1990
The One to Choose
Thomas Egenes's "Introduction to Sanskrit" seems the one to choose, judging from the
reviews, which appear well-informed.
A well structured introduction to a complex and interesting language
Ulfilas
Sanskrit is naturally of interest to anyone who is fascinated by the Indo-European (IE)
language group, as it was the discovery of Sanskrit that first brought the common features
of IE languages into focus. The Sanskrit numbers for 1-10 (eke, dvi, tri, catur, panca, sas,
sapta, nava, and dasa) echo their equivalents in French, German, Russian, and English.
The author gives a clear introduction to the Devanagari alphabet (which means "city of
the gods" in Sanskrit), which is also the alphabet used in the modern Indian language
Hindu.
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Sanskrit grammar is complex, with noun declension encompassing eight cases
(nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, and
instrumental), so the author really has his work cut out him for him--but he introduces
this difficult grammar in well measured lessons so that the student is not unduly
intimidated. There is a list of vocabulary for each of the eighteen chapters of this book.
There are also exercises with a complete set of answers at the back of the book. The book
itself has a large footprint, which allows for a large typeface that facilitates the reading of
the somewhat ornate and unfamiliar Devanagari alphabet.
In addition to the usual grammatical complexities that one encounters in a foreign
language, Sanskrit has a function that I have not seen elsewhere, the explicit modification
of the spelling of the end of a word in order to blend easily with the sound of the word
following it--which in Sanskrit is called "sandhi", which means something like
"combination" or "joining point." The author begins the discussion of sandhi in Chapter
8, which is before even half of the text of the 18 Chapters has passed.
It is also worth noting that appendices constitute one third of the pages of the book. I
regard this as a very good feature, as tables, indexes, and the answers to exercises in most
books seem like little more than an afterthought. Such is not the case here, however, so
that the student can easily find what he is looking for and refresh his memory without
having to laboriously thumb through previous chapters.
Excellente Methode
Schmitt
C'est la seule méthode de sanskrit, à ma connaissance, qui soit vraiment pédagogique.
Les leçons sont bien dosées, on apprend l'écriture graduellement, tout en acquérant peu à
peu des notions de grammaire et du vocabulaire. C'est bien plus efficace que dans les
autres (rares) ouvrages de ce types, qui découragent très vite le lecteur en lui imposant
d'emblée l'assimilation de l'écriture et se présentent finalement plus comme des
grammaires.
!!!!!!
E McConnell
This book is fantastic! The author has taken a very complex language--I would go so far
as to call Sanskrit an Indo-European nightmare--and presented it in very clear, easy
lessons. The most intimidating aspect of Sanskrit might be the consonant combinations
but the author eases the student through the entire alphabet over the space of a few
lessons. Before I started using this book, I had attempted to learn Sanskrit with another
text book and was feeling slightly overwhelmed. I have learned ever so much more from
Egenes' book in very short time!
Great Book
Pankaj Gupta
This is an excellent and a very delightful book. It introduces concepts in an easy to
understand, tabular format, which is easy for a western student, while at the same time
being respectful of the traditional teaching. The language used by the author does not feel
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technical, while at the same time introducing various topics with completeness and
clarity.
Absolutely Wonderful!!
Alexander J. Almeida (Ohio, USA)
I adore languages and am always looking for books that will allow me to learn a language
without having a teacher available. After reading the reviews for this book I decided to
purchase it. I am amazed at how wonderful it has been. I have only just started but with
no experience at all in Sanskrit I am learning quickly and honestly I believe that I will
retain the knowledge that I am learning.
Excellent Introductory Book
Sherry Aldrich Sineath
This was an excellent introductory book on Sanskrit. It was obviously written by
someone experienced in teaching Sanskrit, and sensitive to student input. It was
easy to follow and repetitive enough to give the beginning student a certain sense of
mastery as each new piece of information would build on the last. I highly
recommend it for any beginning student who may have found the Coulson text entirely
too overwhelming and confusing. —Amazon.com
Vedic Society Review
A superb book for beginning with Sanskrit taking one through the basics of reading and
writing and also the basic grammar. The book has a lightness to it and it has beautiful
quotes from various texts, the quotes are especially touching and very poetic. The book is
nicely structured and the author has truly mastered the subject and writes from a
conscious perspective.
Clear and Simple
Michelle M. Maynard
Originally I had picked up Coulson's intro sanskrit book. I found it very difficult to
understand, and as a result I gave up on learning Sanskrit. When I received Egenes book,
I felt relieved and motivated because it was so clear and simple. When your learning a
new language, it is important to keep things simple and to
work in baby steps. Egenes book is simple and clear! —Amazon.com
Best choice
[email protected] from Canberra
I think I have looked at most of the available Sanskrit introductory books - Coulson,
Goldberg, Apte, Rapid Sanskrit Method, etc, first as a student and now as a
teacher. Egenes is the best that I have seen. It is clear, simple, well thought out. It uses
English grammatical terms. The exercises are good, and the answers are at
the back if you need them. The devanagari is big and clear. Amazon.com
5
Excellent Sanskrit Pre-Primer
Egenes' book is excellent as a pre-primer. It presents enough information in its 18 lessons
to give the beginning Sanskritist a firm foundation for progressing to a more difficult
Sanskrit primer. Covered are the basic uses of Classical Sanskrit's 8 cases; paradigms for
9 nominal declensions; a small list of verbs showing present, imperfect, future, and
gerund forms; tables for external sandhi, and coverage of two internal sandhi rules. The
introduction to the Devanagari script is excellent. It goes beyond other primers and shows
you how to actually write the characters. Plus, the text is large and very easy to read. It is
well-worth the price. —Amazon.com
Chinese Edition of Introduction to Sanskrit
Many thanks to Professor Thomas Egenes , the author of “Introduction to Sanskrit”,
for his support to translate into Chinese and publish it on Internet web.
—ucchusma.idv.tw/Sanskrit/sanskrit
Excellent
Barry McKay [email protected]
Initially I'm planning to stay close to the excellent "Introduction to Sanskrit Vol 1 & 2"
by Thomas Egenes. I'm undertaking this now while I am still a relative beginner and in
need of much repetition of vocabulary, verb conjugation and noun declensions etc. It may
be that others will find it useful as well.
Excellent Introductory Textbook
I feel that this is an excellent introductory textbook. This may be due to the fact that it is
the one I am currently studying. Egenes is careful not to overload the student with all of
the technicalities and exceptions to grammatical rules. He goes slow enough to not
feel buried yet fast enough to accomplish a great deal. I also enjoy his readings which are
drawn from scriptures such as the Veda, the Upanisads and the Gita. —
colorado.edu/religiousstudies
Excellent
N. Wiley
Having tried a number of textbooks to get me started in my self-study of Sanskrit, this is
by far the best and most user-friendly of any that I've encountered. I would recommend it
to anyone interested. An excellent feature not listed in the description is that it has a
complete two-way glossary in the back, which is very helpful.
Great for Beginners
I haven't studied Greek or Latin. Like many people I took French in highschool. I'm not a
linguist. Sanskrit is the first exposure to a language with so much conjugation tables and
so on. The initial learning curve on Sanskrit is painfully steep. Everything is conjugated,
including nouns and verbs, and there are seven cases, three genders, and three pluralities
(singular, dual and plural). On top of that there are rules for how sounds change when
words come together, called sandhi rules, and these sound changes are written.
All of this needs to come into play in every sentence you write, no matter how simple,
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like, "The man goes to the village." First you find the singular masculine nomitive of
"man". Then you find the accusative singular of "village". Then you conjugate "goes".
Then you put them together and see if sandhi rules apply where the words come together.
Oh and you have to write this all in Devanagari script, and Devanagari has about 45 basic
letters which can combine together into about 200 variations.
Finally, Sandhi rules often join two words together when written so very often not only
has a word's spelling changed, but it's now joined to the following word(s).
So there's no easy way to get started in simple Sanskrit. Everything you write must go
through the process of conjugation and sandhi formation. It's not like learning Spanish
where you can start saying basic things correctly in the first chapter and start making
basic correct sentences within a couple of weeks. No, not at all.
No matter what you do, it's not going to be easy.
And with this book, I was able to get going, without a teacher or class and it's not painful.
It's slow and takes effort but it works. If any book can achieve that, for a language with
the difficulties that are present in Sanskrit, I think that speaks very highly of the book.
That's why I'm giving this five stars.
I think this book may be unsatisfactory for someone who already speaks Latin or ancient
Greek, because you've already seen all these conjugation tables and Sanskrit conjugations
will not be totally unfamiliar to you. It's an Indo-European languages and you can see
similarities to English and other European languages everywhere.
I also think that this book will be overwhelming and overkill for someone who does yoga
and wants to get a few Sanskrit words and phrases as an addition to the yoga practice. If
that's what you want, find the phrases or words you want to learn and learn them, but
don't try to get into the overwhelming complexities of Sanskrit grammar / declension /
sandhi / devanagari which you need to master in order to say anything at all.
Expect to spend a couple of years of study of this book and Part II to be able to read and
write in Sanskrit.
Great Book (Introduction to Sanskrit, Part Two)
Pankaj Gupta
This is an excellent and a very delightful book.
It introduces concepts in an easy to understand, tabular format - which is easy for a
western student, while at the same time being respectful of the traditional teaching.
The entire text is a fun read, with plenty of
1) examples (in form of tables) throughout the text
2) translation exercises at the end of each chapter (with answers right there)
3) 1 Bhagavad Gita Shloka in each text with full grammatical analysis and word
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meanings right there.
4) Plenty of vocabulary in each chapter
The language used by the Author does not feel technical, while at the same time
introducing various topics with completeness and clarity.
The whole book is a fun reading.
I highly recommend this book. Would also recommend 'Sanskrit without apprehension',
and 'Sanskrit Sambodhini' by Dr. Madhav Deshpande. I also highly recommend
'Elementary Grammar' by Monier Williams.
This book is a gentle introduction and reinforcement to Sanskrit Grammar.
Excellent Introductory Sanskrit Material
Kelil R. Gebrekristos
Great introductory, "pre-primer" for Sanskrit. Egenes introduces grammatical concepts,
vocabulary, and syllabic letters slowly and logically, taking care never to overwhelm the
student. By the end of the book you will still have a lot of work to do in order to become
a fluent Sanskritist, but it will provide you with the foundation in order to study other
introductory texts that tend to gloss over the fundamentals. This book can be completed
quite quickly without worrying that you are overlooking something, due to it's excellent
pedagogical design. Highly recommend it to those without knowledge of more
complicated, highly inflected languages, and for those who wish to self-teach themselves
Sanskrit.
Excellent Introduction to Sanskrit
E. Kirkham
I purchased this book on a whim. My son (10) had been studying the ancient world in his
classroom for over a year and was interested in learning more about Sanskrit. This book
has helped us to understand the complexity of the language and has made him even more
excited about studying ancient languages. I doubt that we will ever master the language,
we probably won't even complete the book, but the spark created by the book was worth
the price and we are happy to have it in our library.
Perfect Beginning
This book is laid out like a typical western textbook, which makes it very easy to follow
for those of us schooled in that fashion - one fewer hurdles is very much appreciated. I've
had a very hard time finding enough exercises and this book helps to fill that need. It has
answers in the back which sets it apart from any I've seen before.
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Reviews that refer to Introduction to Sanskrit
Bhagavad-Gita
Niiza, Saitama
Readers who may be new to Sanskrit, and who would like to get a bit of grounding in the
language before approaching the Bhagavad Gita, might take a look at Thomas Egenes,
'Introduction to Sanskrit' (1989). There are many primers of Sanskrit on the market, but
this is undoubtedly the best as not (like that, for example, of Michael Coulson)
overloading the beginner with too much detail. It also has the additional merit of printing
the Devanagari letters in a large clear font, something that will be appreciated by anyone
who has ever attempted to learn this difficult script. —Amazon.com
Michael Coulson's Teach Yourself Sanskrit —How could a college (UT) have used
this book?
Lawrence Sutherland, Austin, TX
This book failed me. The author writes in a style that, by today's casual standards, seems
more suited to a highbrow English college (like the Cambridge of yesteryear). The font is
terrifically small, the explanations didactic. . .Out of the 13 or so people in the Sanskrit
class which used this text, only three failed to drop out; those three were already
"linguistically accomplished" and could make some sense of it. In the beginning of the
class, I handed everyone a sheet with the alphabet on it (not from the book); later, people
said that without that favor, they'd have dropped out a lot sooner. I think Egenes or
Bucknell's (sp?) book is probably a safer bet. I have Egenes' and I've gotten alot out of it.
Or you can join the Sanskrit for Social Change movement (no kidding). Burn this book.
—Amazon.com
Michael Coulson's Teach Yourself Sanskrit —I bought and returned this book!
Murali Sreenivasan, Tulsa, OK
This book is not meant for anybody to learn Sanskrit. It covers too many topics in too few
pages. To make matters worse, quality of paper used in this book is really bad. Also,
binding of the book is that of a cheap thriller and it is really hard to keep it open while
reading.
One good thing about this book is that, all Exercises have their Solutions, and in my
knowledge Egenes's "Introduction to Sanskrit" is the only other book on Introductory
Sanskrit which provides the key to exercises. —Amazon.com
Michael Coulson's Teach Yourself Sanskrit — not the best Sanskrit primer
Coulson's text is a nightmare to use if you don't already know some Sanskrit. I highly
suggest starting off with Thomas Egenes "Introduction to Sanskrit, Part I." Egenes text
consists of 18 concise but simple lessons which provide one with a foundation in basic
Sanskrit for building upon with more a thorough text. (In fact, Egenes states that his
text is a "pre-primer;" I have to say, it is a most excellent one.) Coulson's text becomes
much easier to comprehend. —Amazon.com
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Michael Coulson's Teach Yourself Sanskrit — This Book is Great if you have a PhD
in Linguistics
Drew, LA, CA USA
This book is probably a great book if you a have a firm background in linguistics, but it is
hardly a "beginners book". Its introduction to the script is also very confusing. I am going
to exchange this book for Thomas Egenes book, everyone seems to say that it is much
more suited for the beginner. —Amazon.com
Michael Coulson's Teach Yourself Sanskrit is a perverse production best avoided by
beginners.
Although Coulson's 'Teach Yourself Sanskrit' is, in many ways, an excellent and
extremely thorough textbook, it is hardly suited to the average beginner. Most of us are
drawn to Sanskrit because of a prior interest in The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads, The
Mahabharata, The Ramayana, even The Hitopadesa. Coulson, however, has chosen perversely it seems to me - to draw all of his examples from Sanskrit drama, a branch of
Sanskrit literature which is of minimal interest to most readers. Even worse, he seems to
have designed the book primarily for exceptionally gifted students, and for those who are
already competent in an ancient inflected language such as Latin or Greek. His
procedure, in other words, betrays an elitist attitude that has resulted in a book which,
rather than teaching anyone Sanskrit, is far more likely to put them off for life. I gave up
in despair about halfway through the book, and so have many others.
This is a pity, as Sanskrit is an exceptionally beautiful language, but there is a remedy at
hand. Instead of wasting one's time with Coulson, the beginner would be far better off
acquiring a copy of Thomas Egenes 'Introduction to Sanskrit' (2 volumes). Almost all
introductory treatments of Sanskrit have been produced for linguists, but here finally is a
truly practical and useful primer of Sanskrit for ordinary folks and human beings. After
working one's way through it (and finding out why India really loves its sacred literature,
epics, and wisdom stories), Coulson might be tackled with profit ... but not before. —
Amazon.com
Better alternatives now available
Since I first wrote a review of this book in Feb 1999, I have taught a Sanskrit course
based on Egenes' Sanskrit textbook. I found Egenes' book rather better than Coulson, and
would recommend it above this book. —Amazon.com
Judith M. Tyberg's First Lessons in Sanskrit Grammar and Reading
I was very disappointed with this book. The main problem is the Devanagari script is so
small that it is barely legible, especially for a beginner. Strangely, the current edition has
hand-written corrections in the margins! This book must have been quite an improvement
on Lanman and Whitney when it was first published in the 1940s(?), but there are many
better Sanskrit introductions available now, for example Egenes. This book is of no use to
me. I have put it away on a very high shelf. —Amazon.com
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Mahabharata
So where are we? Clearly no ideal and complete English translation of the Mahabharata
exists, nor is ever likely to exist given its stupendous size. Also, to really get a feeling for
the magic of the Mahabharata, you have to read at least a bit of it in Sanskrit. A practical
and user-friendly 'Introduction to Sanskrit' for ordinary folks (as opposed to academic
linguists) is that of Thomas Egenes (1989). A few months work with this will soon find
anyone reading at least some of the Sanskrit, in a bilingual edition such as Monier
Williams' excellent 'Story of Nala,' with real enjoyment.
To conclude, if I had to choose between the Ganguli and van Buitenen, and although I'm
grateful for both as both have much to offer, I would recommend Ganguli as being closer
in spirit to the original - but I'd also suggest that those who are innocent of Sanskrit take a
peek at Egenes. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. —Amazon.com
The Only Way for Beginners
J. Bogaarts
The book by Egenes is really the best you can get. It presents a very gentle way of
learning the principles of a difficult language.
The first problematic thing about Sanskrit is that is uses a script that, although beautiful if
you have an eye for it, is fiendishly complex. An ordinary person could be up and going
into Greek after spending an afternoon on the Greek script. Learning Sanskrit is different.
You need at least a week or more. Egenes solves this by starting with Latin script and
gradually introducing the Devanagari script. After seven lessons you have mastered the
script and learned a lot of Sanskrit along the way.
The second problem is sandhi. In Sanskrit the pronunciation of words in a sentence is
different from the pronunciation of the words standing on their own. This is regulated in
the sandhi rules. The sandhi rules tell you how to pronounce all the combinations of all
the possible word endings with all the possible word beginnings. The problem is that all
these sandhis have to be written out. After working through the next eleven chapters you
know these rules and how to apply them and you feel confident enough to start reading
(for instance) a well annotated edition of the Bhagavad Gita (like Winthrop Sargeants'
one, The Bhagavad Gita (Suny Series in Cultural Perspectives)).