Functional Sanskrit Its Communicative Aspect

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It was a declared wish of the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, that Sanskrit should be the national language of India. This is because Sanskrit forms the very foundation of all Indian languages. However, she desired that for common use it should be a simple Sanskrit from the grammatical point of view. The Sanskrit Karyalaya of Sri Aurobindo Ashram has been active in promoting and popularising a simple form of Sanskrit for a number of years and this book represents the culmination of its efforts so far in this direction. The introductory and concluding chapters of the book deal with the relevance of Sanskrit in the present context. The first chapter presents a comparative study of Sanskrit with English, French, Tamil and Hindi and also a glossary of common words found in eleven major Indian languages. Conversations, stories, songs, playlet etc. in simple Sanskrit are included in the second chapter. The third chapter consists of eleven graded lessons and a glossary of terms useful for daily use. Sanskrit is considered difficult mainly because one has to memorise the numorous conjugations and declensions and the rules of gender and sandhi. Chapters from fourth to seventh are devoted to showing how these difficulties can be systematically removed using a novel approach. The book is thus intended to be a conve-nient handbook equally useful to teachers and students of the language.

Everywhere there is a demand that Sanskrit should be simple so that it can be learned easily. The demand is genuine. But how to fulfilled ? This book is the first of its kind to serve this end.

It is fair to ask the question: "What do we mean by simple Sanskrit ?" The answer is given by the author through his close perception of the lucidities of Sanskrit from both historical and functional standpoints. The book is an in-depth study and a good piece of progressive research for establishing that Sanskrit can be both simple and fully communicative. This proves -low far Sanskrit is simpler to learn than other Indian and foreign languages. The introduction stresses the relevance of Sanskrit in the present context in a JItilingual country like India. The first chapter indicates the affinity and closeness Sanskrit with some foreign and Indian languages. The second and third provide a framework of learning and teaching of simple Sanskrit with well-designed lessons and a vocabulary of common words. The including chapter records the author's observations. "The author has evolved and presented some new techniques and methods to tate rapid learning. -lope this work of Dr. Narendra will receive the attention of learners and learned for its pragmatic features, new methodology and freshness of ideas.

**Contents and Sample Pages**