Scholastic Sanskrit: A Manual for Students (Treasury of the Indic Sciences) Review

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Scholastic Sanskrit: A Manual for Students (Treasury of the Indic Sciences) ReviewI had the good fortune to study Sanskrit for several years at an Ivy League University. Unfortunately, I was never able to take a class that involved a great deal of use of the commentaries that seem to accompany all major Sanskrit texts. I would just use them, when I could, to find word divisions, undo sandhi, etc.
Several years ago, I began to try to teach myself the commentatorial style. A former professor told me that the only works he knew of in Western languages on this style were a chapter in Teach Yourself Sanskrit Complete Course (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) and a German work, Nominale Ausdrucksformen im wissenschaftlichen Sanskrit - written in - at least to me - an impenetrable style of German, though I am told it is an essential text.
Then I ordered "Scholastic Sanskrit". I can not overemphasize how valuable it has become to me in the few short weeks I have owned it. It serves both as a reference text, and a teaching tool. It explains with example after example all the formulaic expressions that occurr in Sanskrit commentaries, such as ityarthah, -adi, etena...iti, and on and on and on!
The style is completely lucid and seems geared towards those, like myself, who are trying to learn this style without the benefit of a teacher. I have read only about the first 50 pages or so, but, with this text in hand, I am now able to see nuances and meaning in commentaries, where before I had just found frustrating confusion.
The authors recommend using the text in conjuction with the Anubandhas of Panini (Publications of the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit), which I have also found quite helpful.
I am using "Scholastic Sanskrit" along with Panditaraja Jagannatha's Gangalahari: With the commentary by Sri Sadasiva & English translation. This text provides a Sanskrit commentary on the poem with a literal - and thoughtful - English translation. I cannot reccommend either of the books too highly for those trying to learn how to read Sanskrit commentaries without a guru. (I can also thoroughly reccommend the Ramopakhyana - The Story of Rama in the Mahabharata: A Sanskrit Independent-Study Reader )
My only negative comment on the book is that the indexes in the back sometimes provide references that are off by 2-4 pages. A minor point.
Many thanks to the authors for providing such a work!Scholastic Sanskrit: A Manual for Students (Treasury of the Indic Sciences) OverviewThis volume gives a complete introduction to the techniques and procedures of Sanskrit commentaries, including detailed information on the overall structure of running commentaries, the standard formulas of analysis of complex grammatical forms, and the most important elements of commentarial style. Since the majority of expository texts in Sanskrit are composed in the form of commentaries on earlier texts, this Manual will be of great use to many Sanskrit translators. Furthermore, because many philosophical and scientific texts are written in the style of formal debate using the same basic principles, the features covered in the manual are useful for reading all expository texts, whether they are commentaries or not. (8/1/09)

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