There have been actually many attempts by earlier writers on this subject, I mean, 'Sanskrit as a Spoken Language', keeping in view that Sanskrit may be used for day-to-day life. To be very honest, I do not think that Sanskrit would once again come back in its past glory fully and there is hardly any possibility that it may be considered as the national language of India dismantling the position of Hindi and English, as some may dream of. Sanskrit is very much living in all its aspects, no doubt about it. In religious rituals right from birth to death, which actually are inseparable parts of Indian culture and life, Sanskrit is the only medium. It is living in almost all the Indian languages, in which the largest amount of vocabulary is Sanskrit itself. In secondary schools regular courses are given. (However, in most cases it is for a short period and that too, in many a case, as an optional subject). Good number of students is taking courses of Sanskrit at college and university levels. Books and journals in Sanskrit are regularly published; `Sanskrit News' is broadcast and telecast everyday (the number of audience may not be high as one may expect). Anyway it needs no elaboration to establish importance of this language in Indian perspective and there is no difference of opinion in the matter that Sanskrit has to be given a proper place, it deserves, and that more steps are needed to improve the present status of this language in Indian education system. Now-a-days there are several Sanskrit universities which offers courses in Sanskrit medium. In consideration of all these aspects 'Speaking in Sanskrit' should be accepted as something that helps the students to know Sanskrit in a better way and grow up confidence in the fact that it has the potentiality of being a spoken language as other vernaculars. In assemblies of Sanskrit knowing people however, this can be used as the medium without a hesitation.
It needs no mention, the title of this book being self-explicit; the emphasis is given to how the students can speak in Sanskrit. Much care has been taken to see that students can find out all possible uses relating to the particular topics in particular Lessons. Possible readers of this book are not small children of primary school level. With some amount of maturity they would be in a position to comprehend construction of Sanskrit sentences through uses, given profusely in the text. New methods and techniques for making Sanskrit popular are coming up every now and then. These attempts, of course, are laudable. The way we, the Indians, started learning English, was to be acquainted with the stock of words (we knew such works as 'Word Book') at first and, then gradually construct short simple sentences utilizing the preliminary knowledge of the use of verbs. That method, we think, has not lost its credibility, particularly with regards to Sanskrit in its present position, which is not used for day-to-day life. In this book we have followed to some extent that old method. Lessons start with a list of small vocabulary of a particular field and then follow use of those words, sometimes presented in verse form, composed by the present author himself, with simple metres like Aniston, Update, Totaka and the like with less numbers of letters in each foot. Students will discover with much interest that composing Sanskrit verse (`s local') is not at all a difficult task. There are some verses with words from the vocabulary in their original faun itself, the trick behind composition of a local being placing them in proper order in accordance with the rules of metres. We have given some well-known and popular verses, of course dealing with the subject of that particular Lesson. In some cases we have given some examples in conversational form or question-answer form as well. Content of some verses or passages will help bringing a lighter atmosphere in the class-room and thus get rid of a possible feeling of being bored at times.
The book starts with Nagari (also called 'Devanagari') alphabets and a very short mention of their pronunciation and place of articulation.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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