Can anyone recommend valuable/high-quality resources to use to learn:
Sanskrit?
Prakrit?
Pali?
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brooks
October 13, 2019, 1:19pm
2
Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
After searching a couple of years ago, this was the best resource I could find to learn Pali without entering a formal educational program. They offer several levels of online Pali courses, and they sometimes offer a short advanced Pali course at Oxford.
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Thank you for the recommendation!
Are the resources provided through this website offered free of cost?
Leon
October 13, 2019, 3:39pm
4
For Sanskrit , I have personally used for learning and teaching:
M. Coulson’s Sanskrit: A complete course for beginners.
R. Goldman’s Devavāṇīpraveśikā: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language
T. Egenes’ Introduction to Sanskrit.
Once you have mastered the basics of Classical Sanskrit, you might like to begin reading some texts, e.g.:
C. R. Lanman’s Sanskrit Reader, which is a classic.
P. Scharf’s Rāmopākhyāna helpfully parses each word and each verse is accompanied by a simple Sanskrit commentary.
For Pali I personally only used Warder’s Introduction to Pali.
For Prakrit you might take a look at
Woolner’s Introduction to Prakrit (Introduction to Prakrit : Woolner, Alfred C. (Alfred Cooper), 1878-1936 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive )
Ananthanarayana’s Prakrit Reader (A Prakrit Reader [A Linguistic Introduction — Based on Selections from Hāla's Sattasaī] : H. S. Anathanarayana : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive ).
In Sanskrit dramas, lower status characters speak a variety of Prakrits. Editions of well-known dramas often include Sanskrit translations/glosses/comments to Prakrit dialogues, which are helpful for the student.
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Leon:
For Sanskrit …
For Pali …
For Prakrit …
The Prakrit list in particular was one that I was having quite a bit of trouble locating resources for!
Thank you so so much for your wonderful recommendations, @Leon !
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brooks
October 13, 2019, 4:31pm
6
My pleasure. I think there are some free resources and some low cost resources too.
2 Likes
Leon
October 14, 2019, 7:25am
7
Hi,
Here are a few more Prakrit suggestions - perhaps they’ll be useful to you:
Jain, B. Das: Ardha-Magadhi Reader.
Pischel, R.: Comparative grammar of the Prakrit languages.
Mehendale, M. A.: Historical grammar of inscriptional Prakrits
Editions of Prakrit texts:
The Ayâranga sutta of the Svetâmbara Jains. Ed. by Hermann Jacobi. Part 1, Text.
The Kalpasûtra of Bhadrabâhu; edited with an introduction, notes and a Prâkrit-Sanskrit glossary by Hermann Jacobi.
The Mahapurana or Tisatthimahapurisagunalamkara of Puspadanta. Ed. by P.L.Vaidya
Two Prakrit versions of the Manipaticarita. Ed. by R.Williams
Hindu tales : an English translation of Jacobi’s Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Maharashtri. By John Jacob Meyer.
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Asha
April 23, 2023, 5:33pm
9
And also Madhav M. Deshpande’s “Sanskrit Primer”. It is a really user friendly edition
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