@Glabrigausapes Is there any textbooks you'd recommend for learning Sanskrit? Asking for a friend (no, really!).
Sanskrit
- Thread starter Serenus
- Start date
Hmm, for Classical Sanskrit I might recommend the dirt-cheap Teach Yourself (Sanskrit) paperbacks, easy to find & easy to use. The enfuriatingly-titled Devavanipravesika: Introduction to Sanskrit by Goldman & Sutherland is OK, but maybe not worth the price tag. There was a really excellent series of slim (paperback) books in bright yellow/orange, but I can't for the life of me remember the author or title. It was a woman's name, I believe. I'll try to find them in my folks' basement the next time I visit. There's also a primer that I was positive was by the well-known Indo-Europeanist Winfred Lehmann but for god's sake I can't find it on the internet! I would highly recommend it, if I could remember what the hell it's called. For these latter two, I'll have to get back to you.
Also very useful is the Clay Sanskrit Library, pretty little azure books that are essentially the analog to Loeb's green & red Greek & Latin (facing text & translation). They're affordable & some of them are available on Kindle; my only grievance is that they are transliterated, not in nagari.
As far as grammars go, the one I cherish is Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar. For Vedic specifically, you must have Macdonell.
Hope this helps!
Also very useful is the Clay Sanskrit Library, pretty little azure books that are essentially the analog to Loeb's green & red Greek & Latin (facing text & translation). They're affordable & some of them are available on Kindle; my only grievance is that they are transliterated, not in nagari.
As far as grammars go, the one I cherish is Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar. For Vedic specifically, you must have Macdonell.
Hope this helps!
I'm not too surprised. Until 2014, the standard (complete) English translation of the Rigveda (at least in the US) was that of Ralph Griffith. He had it published in 1889...
Resurrecting/repurposing this thread for any interested in the language. I've been mining the Rigveda for nuggets of gold (which it has plenty of), and I'll post some of them (why not?) with a more or less 1-to-1 Latin translation.
RV 5.11.5c - to Agni (L ignis)
त्वां गिरः सिन्धुमिवावनीर्महीरा पृणन्ति शवसा वर्धयन्ति च ॥
t(u)vāṃ giraḥ sindhum-iv(a)-āvanīr-mahīr-ā pṛṇanti śavasā vardhayanti ca
Latine legitur:
Te (Ignis) cantūs Sindum ceu rivi magni complent vigore augentque
RV 5.11.5c - to Agni (L ignis)
त्वां गिरः सिन्धुमिवावनीर्महीरा पृणन्ति शवसा वर्धयन्ति च ॥
t(u)vāṃ giraḥ sindhum-iv(a)-āvanīr-mahīr-ā pṛṇanti śavasā vardhayanti ca
Latine legitur:
Te (Ignis) cantūs Sindum ceu rivi magni complent vigore augentque
Quite a fascinatingly weird line here, from beginning to end. Addressed to Agni:
क्रीळन्नो रश्म आ भुवः सम्भस्मना वायुना वेविदानः
krīḷan-nō raśma ā bhuvaḥ sam-bhasmanā vāyunā vevidānaḥ (RV V.19.5)
Sic Latine:
Saltans nobis, o Radi (sg. voc.), adsis cum mordice vento identidem visus
The last word is a participle of pretty refined meaning (if I have it right). Ultimately from IE < *wei̯d- 'see, scope out; [perfective] know', but with nasal infix for a stem vind 'search out, find', so that the fully reduplicated (full-grade intensive/iterative) perfect middle participle wd mean something like 'being found (over and over) = always accompanied by'.
If that's correct, what exactly is the sense? Why "biting"? My guess is as follows: given that the Rigveda often insists that Wind be the first dedicand of the rite, and fire is there beforehand as a matter of course, the air is the first thing to touch the soma after it's been pressed and it gets a "taste" before anyone else. Or it could be more plain in that a bitter/biting wind causes the flames to "dance".
क्रीळन्नो रश्म आ भुवः सम्भस्मना वायुना वेविदानः
krīḷan-nō raśma ā bhuvaḥ sam-bhasmanā vāyunā vevidānaḥ (RV V.19.5)
Sic Latine:
Saltans nobis, o Radi (sg. voc.), adsis cum mordice vento identidem visus
The last word is a participle of pretty refined meaning (if I have it right). Ultimately from IE < *wei̯d- 'see, scope out; [perfective] know', but with nasal infix for a stem vind 'search out, find', so that the fully reduplicated (full-grade intensive/iterative) perfect middle participle wd mean something like 'being found (over and over) = always accompanied by'.
If that's correct, what exactly is the sense? Why "biting"? My guess is as follows: given that the Rigveda often insists that Wind be the first dedicand of the rite, and fire is there beforehand as a matter of course, the air is the first thing to touch the soma after it's been pressed and it gets a "taste" before anyone else. Or it could be more plain in that a bitter/biting wind causes the flames to "dance".
The matter's potentially complicated further by the fact that bhasman as a neuter noun can be "ash", which could be construed in apposition to vāyunā.
A lovely bit from the Chandogya Upanishad:
तौ ह प्रजापतिरुवाच य एषो ऽक्षिणि पुरुषो दृश्यत एष आत्मेति
tau ha prajāpatir-uvāca ya eṣo 'kṣiṇi puruṣo dṛśyata eṣa ātmeti - ChU, 8, 7, 4.1
Duobus igitur Prajapati dixit: ille qui in oculo homo videtur - ille "Ipse" est.
Sic Juan Mascaró:
'What you see when you look into another person's eyes, that is the Atman.' (if I remember Prajapati has just instructed Indra and someone else to look at each other.)
तौ ह प्रजापतिरुवाच य एषो ऽक्षिणि पुरुषो दृश्यत एष आत्मेति
tau ha prajāpatir-uvāca ya eṣo 'kṣiṇi puruṣo dṛśyata eṣa ātmeti - ChU, 8, 7, 4.1
Duobus igitur Prajapati dixit: ille qui in oculo homo videtur - ille "Ipse" est.
Sic Juan Mascaró:
'What you see when you look into another person's eyes, that is the Atman.' (if I remember Prajapati has just instructed Indra and someone else to look at each other.)
Last edited:
Optume factum'st. Egomet nescio cur sit दृश्यत एष, sed ita legitur in situ interretiali Corpus Digitale Sanscriti. Ego si recte memini, e terminale > [ay] > -ă in praesentia vocalis initialis nisi ă-, sed regulae istae mihi sunt difficiles. Casus Vedice aliquid simplicior.
However, if the form had been an unaugmented middle imperfect (दृश्यत), then I think Jason's rule would obtain (a + ay = āi).
Cum alicuius verbi de usibus sciscitabar DCS, hunc versum inveni aliquid ridiculum. Utrum locatiuom sit an genitiuom me nescire confiteor.
किमु त्वावान्मुष्कयोर्बद्ध आसते
kim-u tvāvān-muṣkayor-baddha āsate
Ecquid [talis-qui-es] duobus coleis vinctus manebit?
किमु त्वावान्मुष्कयोर्बद्ध आसते
kim-u tvāvān-muṣkayor-baddha āsate
Ecquid [talis-qui-es] duobus coleis vinctus manebit?
mea culpa, fallor enim - cōgitābam dē imperfectō, nec intellexī esse praesentis temporis!
hīc dīcitur esse locātīuus. fortasse melius hoc quam genetīuus respectūs, quālem nōn uīdī sanscriticē.
Miror istunc situm, ὦ Ἰᾶσον! शतं ते सन्तु शरदो विचक्षे हिरण्यात्मन्मेधिर रोदसीमे ।
Another corker (to Agni):
यद उद्वतो निवतो यासि बप्सत्पृथगेषि प्रगर्धिनीव सेना ।
यदा ते वातो अनुवाति शोचिर्वप्तेव श्मश्रु वपसि प्र भूम ॥ - 10.142.4
Cum supra, infra vadis comedens / passim is petulans ceu exercitus
Quom tuum ventus aspirat lumen / tonsor ceu barbam tondes tellurem
यद उद्वतो निवतो यासि बप्सत्पृथगेषि प्रगर्धिनीव सेना ।
यदा ते वातो अनुवाति शोचिर्वप्तेव श्मश्रु वपसि प्र भूम ॥ - 10.142.4
Cum supra, infra vadis comedens / passim is petulans ceu exercitus
Quom tuum ventus aspirat lumen / tonsor ceu barbam tondes tellurem
यत्र कामा निकामाश्च यत्र ब्रध्नस्य विष्टपम् ।
स्वधा च यत्र तृप्तिश्च तत्र माममृतं कृधीन्द्रायेन्दो परि स्रव ॥
- IX.113.10
Ubi [sunt] amores cupidinesque, ubi falvi [solis? Somi?] apex,
autonomia et ubi satietas, illic me immortalem fac:
Indro, o gutta, circumflue
स्वधा च यत्र तृप्तिश्च तत्र माममृतं कृधीन्द्रायेन्दो परि स्रव ॥
- IX.113.10
Ubi [sunt] amores cupidinesque, ubi falvi [solis? Somi?] apex,
autonomia et ubi satietas, illic me immortalem fac:
Indro, o gutta, circumflue