11 Great Sanskrit Learning Tools

Sanskrit संस्कृतम् is a classical language of South Asia belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages, that came into existence in South Asia after its predecessor languages diffused there from the northwest, in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan varieties. The most archaic of these is Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda, a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from what today is Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northern India.

Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism.

The first and foremost step every Sanskrit learner must take is to appreciate the existence of such an ancient language religiously, with heart and respect. Accept Sanskrit like any other International language. Sanskrit is neither impossible to learn and nor tough to use. The only obstacles to learning are ones own built fear bubble. Once learners are able to break it, there’s no looking back!

Flashcards

A flashcard is a card bearing information on both sides, which is intended to be used as an aid in memorization. Flashcards are often used to memorize vocabulary, historical dates, formulas or any subject matter that can be learned via a question-and-answer format. Quizlet, Memrise and Anki are your best bet for Sanskrit.

Movies

Using YouTube with translated captions or watch Sanskrit movies with English subtitles and English movies with Sanskrit subtitles, to get a fair idea of the language. You could use cinestaan, movies like Punyakoti, Priyamasanam(National Award-winning Sanskrit movie) – also available in a book format, Anurakthi( world’s first 3d Sanskrit movie), Ishti, Suryakantha, Aham Brahmaasmi, AdiShankaracharya, Bhagwad Gita, Madhurasmitham, Namo, Mdhubhashitham etc.

Chants and News Listen to chants on YouTube or another platform to get the pronunciation correct. You can learn spoken Sanskrit or opt to learn prayers and memorize slokas. Make sure you know the Devanagari alphabet properly, because pronouncing each letter properly is integral to the Sanskrit language. I just wish there were more:

https://youtube.com/user/sanskritanews

https://youtu.be/vTlI2sTfCKc

https://youtu.be/NQ6CLekQJO0

https://youtu.be/k1kiiX5e9_o

https://youtu.be/giDplHSKeoE

https://youtu.be/6MRZEBb35Ao

Online classes

SAFIC offers the course titled ‘Learn Sanskrit Modules’ is an e-mail based basic Sanskrit course, aimed at those aspirants who are at the grass-root level and want to learn and write the Sanskrit language from its basics, including the Devanagari Script. You could also write to the 77-year old Telugu-speaking Linguist from Hyderabad (Telangana), India, Dr. Y. N. Rao, Course Director at doctorynrao@yahoo.co.in for receiving the enrollment application form for the course. Dr. Rao has already successfully delivered nine batches teaching the Sanskrit language FREE OF COST through the Internet via. e-mail for the last 9 years with the last one that started on 17 Jan 2020.

One could also explore the 5-course specialisation, offered by Sanskrit Club at IIT Roorkee in association with Samskrita Bharati that provides a certificate after successful completion of learning

Visit Samskrita Bharati website and attend their conversation camps, called  Sambhashana Shibira and take up the diploma course they conduct, SamskritaBharati is the Best option for Spoken Sanskrit. Easy to Start by joining 10 Days course ( 2/3 hours max Per Day ) and then continue on a Higher level

Of the many resources available on the internet a free online course for beginners in Sanskrit, that has a great curriculum and encourages beginners to talk in Sanskrit, besides, teaching the basics of Sanskrit grammar is :

An acquaintance with Sanskrit: the mother of languages | ChalkStreet

I think this could be a good place to start off your learning.

You could also  explore Learn Sanskrit Online and UBC Sanskrit Learning Tools

Mnemonics 

A mnemonic is a great tool that helps us remember certain facts or large amounts of information. They can come in the form of a song, rhyme, acronym, image, phrase, or sentence. Mnemonics help us remember facts and are particularly useful when the order of things is important.

Conversation Partners 

Italki

Not too long ago it was really difficult or impossible to practice foreign languages without traveling to the country where the language is spoken. Thankfully, tools like italki have made it possible to connect with native speakers from all over the world to practice or to take personalized lessons over Skype.

Speaky

Speaky helps you discover the social way to learn languages connecting you with a worldwide language learning community where you can meet people from 180+countries, speaking 110 + languages.

You could find your perfect language partners on Speaky, who share your interests and passions.

Language Exchange 

On this website, you can find partners in the world and learn new languages with them. Learn languages in a friendly atmosphere! Discover new cultures! This site is completely free and without ads.

Conversation Exchange

Conversation Exchange is a social platform founded by ‘two travellers from Venice’ who travelled the world and are fluent in Venetian, Italian, English, and Spanish. Through Conversation Exchange you can have three types of language exchange: face to face conversation by meeting up with native speakers, Correspondence (pen-pal), text and voice chat

Dictionary 

Forvo

Sanskrit Heritage Dictionary

Sanskrit Dictionary

Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit

Monier Williams Online Dictionary [Sanskrit to English]

Monier Williams Online Dictionary [English to Sanskrit]

Interactive dictionary that also corrects learners

Apte’s Sanskrit-English Dictionary [Sanskrit to English]

Apte’s English-Sanskrit Dictionary [English to Sanskrit, saved in several PDFs]

Reading resources

The format of Anuvaad Kaumudi learning is really efficient to equip you with basic conversation skills and sentence structuring within a few chapters. But you should be able to read HINDI for it. You can buy it online from the following link :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/m/book/details/rachna-anuvad-kaumudi-NZC903/

Few other good resources for Sanskrit literature are: https://archive.org/search.php?query=kadambari

Madhurashtakam 

UBC Sanskrit Learning Tools

Sanskrit (Teach Yourself) Paperback – International Edition, September 1, 1982

by Michael Coulson. Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit original with the inner-liner translation by Winthrop Sergeant is very useful.

IITS Koeln offers you Sanskrit lexicons prepared since 1994 by the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies, Cologne University

Sanskrit for Beginners – Dr. S. Ramaratnam

https://sanskritdocuments.org/

http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.html

https://archive.org/details/freeindological

Get more resources at Learn Sanskrit Online

http://www.acharya.gen.in:8080/sanskrit/lessons.php

Welcome | Learn Sanskrit Online

https://ubcsanskrit.ca/lesson3/sandhicharts.html

https://ubcsanskrit%28dot%29ca/lesson3/sandhicharts.html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10048.htm

http://www.acharya.gen.in:8080/sanskrit/offline/lesson9.pdf

Translation

Tamil cube is a free multilingual translation service registered under Comsys Singapore, Tamilcube® is Singapore’s most trusted brand for educational and cultural resources, products and services. 

Wikipedia 

Wikipedia is increasingly used by people in the academic community, from freshman students to distinguished professorship, as an easily accessible tertiary source for information about anything and everything, and as a quick “ready reference”, to get a sense of a concept or idea.

Podcasts

Podcasts are an excellent way to learn Sanskrit quickly. You can listen to them anytime and anywhere—at your desk or while you’re on the move. And, what better way to pass the time during a long commute than by immersing yourself in an entertaining podcast?

Here are a few Sanskrit podcasts and radio channels for you ivmpodcasts, playerfm, podbean, podchaser, samskritabharatipodcast, Listennotes, oursanskrit, Devyani radio, and many more..

Audiobooks

An audiobook is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. Audiobooks can help improve your comprehension and vocabulary. Hearing new words — independent of or in combination with reading them — can significantly help with comprehension and vocabulary, especially for kids and second-language learners!

Dr. James Hartzell studied Sanskrit and India studies at Harvard and Columbia University. He then went on to do cognitive neuroscience research at the University of Trento (Italy). His work shows that people who memorize long Sanskrit texts have brains that literally expand and become better with sharper memory and cognitive skills. Professional Vedic Sanskrit pandits (priests) in India train from childhood for around 10 years in an ancient, formalized tradition of oral Sanskrit text memorization and recitation, mastering the exact pronunciation and invariant content of multiple 40,000–100,000 word oral texts. Tests conducted a structural analysis of grey matter density, cortical thickness, local gyrification, and white matter structure, relative to matched controls. The tests found massive grey matter density and cortical thickness increases in pandit brains in language, memory and visual systems, including i) bilateral lateral temporal cortices and ii) the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus, regions associated with long and short-term memory. It must be noted that increased grey matter density is not the same thing as increased grey matter volume (“expansion”) — in fact, the researchers found a slight decrease in the volume of the right hippocampus in pandits when they did a volume-specific analysis. Differences in hippocampal morphometry matched those previously documented for expert spatial navigators and individuals with good verbal working memory. The findings provide a unique insight into the brain organization implementing formalized oral knowledge systems. An excerpt from Grin.news

Think of what Sanskrit can do for you! Sanskrit doesn’t benefit people. Sanskrit blesses you!