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**Paul Bunyan** · 04-18-2012, 03:20 PM

Amid all the praise for Sanskrit, let me also present a detraction.

No doubt there is an enormous amount of great, epic quality literature in Sanskrit along with tomes of high quality spiritual thought.

However many Sanskrit learners have complained about the difficulty of its grammar. Many, many hours have to be spent memorizing the rules. A true Sanskrit scholar has to devote several years to the mastery of the language.

I think the difficulty of the language also promoted class distinction in India. Only a selected group of people could effectively use it. The rest fell back to Prakrit, Pali (and later Hindi) and were demoted in the social hierarchy.

Compare this to Hindi, Tamil or English. Even auto wallahs in the appropriate regions can converse in these languages.

I would beg to differ...there is no need to memorize the grammar once a language is spoken.
Just like how all of us grew up speaking our mother tongue..its by hearing and everything else fell in place.
A child learns by hearing and mouth movement and later word recognition.
No child learn rules of grammar when they speak their 1st few words.

That why Samskrita Bharati of India is working hard to revive spoken Sanskrit cos then all rules of grammar will just fall into place.

Most important do NOT memorize any rule of grammar.Rules can be deduced if effort is made.

Sanskrit grammar rules are not impossible to master...its not hard as most commonly thought but its vast thats all.

Everyone I met in India when I was a student told me that Sanskrit is too hard to master.
In 2007 I decided to self study Sanskrit and I am happy to know if a person with no previous background of even knowing the Devanagari script could self study it without a teacher..I feel anyone can study sanskrit.

Firstly we indians should drop the notion that Sanskrit is hard and impossible to master and the feeling that its not for the common man.With hard work and determination nothing is impossible to master.

Its really fun that now I can even swear in Sanskrit!!

04-18-2012, 03:20 PM	#36
Paul Bunyan Join Date Jul 2007 Age 58 Posts 4,495 Senior Member	Amid all the praise for Sanskrit, let me also present a detraction. No doubt there is an enormous amount of great, epic quality literature in Sanskrit along with tomes of high quality spiritual thought. However many Sanskrit learners have complained about the difficulty of its grammar. Many, many hours have to be spent memorizing the rules. A true Sanskrit scholar has to devote several years to the mastery of the language. I think the difficulty of the language also promoted class distinction in India. Only a selected group of people could effectively use it. The rest fell back to Prakrit, Pali (and later Hindi) and were demoted in the social hierarchy. Compare this to Hindi, Tamil or English. Even auto wallahs in the appropriate regions can converse in these languages. I would beg to differ...there is no need to memorize the grammar once a language is spoken. Just like how all of us grew up speaking our mother tongue..its by hearing and everything else fell in place. A child learns by hearing and mouth movement and later word recognition. No child learn rules of grammar when they speak their 1st few words. That why Samskrita Bharati of India is working hard to revive spoken Sanskrit cos then all rules of grammar will just fall into place. Most important do NOT memorize any rule of grammar.Rules can be deduced if effort is made. Sanskrit grammar rules are not impossible to master...its not hard as most commonly thought but its vast thats all. Everyone I met in India when I was a student told me that Sanskrit is too hard to master. In 2007 I decided to self study Sanskrit and I am happy to know if a person with no previous background of even knowing the Devanagari script could self study it without a teacher..I feel anyone can study sanskrit. Firstly we indians should drop the notion that Sanskrit is hard and impossible to master and the feeling that its not for the common man.With hard work and determination nothing is impossible to master. Its really fun that now I can even swear in Sanskrit!!
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