What do you do when your Sanskrit class is hard?
Sanskrit language, the ancient Indo-Aryan language in which most ancient papers are Vedas, composed of what is known as Vedic Sanskrit (“adorned, cultivated, purified”), Sanskrit language. Although Vedic records represent dialects found in the Northern Midlands and areas of the Indian sub-continent, the very first texts — Rigveda (“the Veda Composed in Verses”), generally attributed in the North-West part of the sub-continent to around 1500 BCE by scholars, the area of the ancient seven Rivers (sapta sindhuva) — represent the north-west part of the subcontinent.
In India, Sanskrit is known to be the language of gods. It is considered to be the language that has seen more history than men themselves.
Automatically, this deems the language to be an ancient one. With that said, we also need to consider personal factors that affect every individual’s learning capacity. These personal factors greatly affect the outcome of the effort and time devoted by that individual to learn the language. In fact, many would tell you that Sanskrit is not as difficult to master as it may seem. To be very honest with you, it is easier said than done. Sanskrit has a lot of aspects to master. It’s definitely not a simple language, if anything, it is one of the most complex languages out there. Known as the mother of all Indian languages, you can definitely expect a certain level of difficulty.
With that said, the reality is that even if you wish to master the language and dedicate a decent amount of time and effort to mastering the language, you’re still going to be in need of a professional guide to help you. To begin with, in order to master a language as difficult as Sanskrit, you need to be prepared to dedicate an immense amount of time and effort. Secondly, you need to look for appropriate resources depending on what level of fluency you are aiming to achieve. I also suggest changing your classes if your classes seem too hard for you to keep up with.
A Sanskrit professional guide is meant to help you learn the language not to brief you with your language of choice. If the class is too hard then you need to look for a professional guide who caters to your needs and helps you learn the language well. Read Sanskrit literature, listen to Sanskrit music and watch Sanskrit movies with English subtitles. Slowly start conversing in the language with other Sanskrit students or with your own professional guide. All these steps are bound to help you master the language with a little more ease.
Finally,
The language that bore linguistic proximity to the late Vedic language, and was used extensively in the northwestern part of the subcontinent then, is commonly referred to as the Classical Sanskrit. It is beautifully described in one of the finest grammars ever produced, called the Ashtadhyayi that literally means the Eight Chapters. Ashtadhyayi was a creative composition by Pāṇini (C. 6th–5th BCE). In turn, the Ashtadhyayi became the subject of a wealth of literary commentaries, documents known since Kātyāyana (4th to 3rd centuries BCE). The peak of the intense work on semantics and the language philosophy is the Vākyapadīya or the Treatise on Word and Sentence contributed by Bhartṛhari dated 6th-7th century! If you wish to enrol into classes to receive expert guidance, click here.