Sanskrit: Lesson 1 (alternative)

Original text (with corrections)

नेहरूजन्मदिनम्

भारतवर्षस्य प्रथमः प्रधानमन्त्री पण्डितो जवाहरलालनेहरूः नवम्बरमासस्य चतुर्दशे दिवसे संजातः। देशे विदेशे च लब्धविद्याभ्यासः नेहरूः भारतप्रजानां सर्वतोमुख्यै अभिवृद्ध्यै सदा अश्राम्यत्। नवभारतशिल्पी इति स वर्णितः इतिहासज्ञैः। तस्य जन्मदिनं शिशूनां दिनमिति आचर्यते। शिशूषु नेहरूमहाशस्य असीमा प्रेमा तत्र कारणम्। प्रजातन्त्रव्यवस्थायां जात्यतीतत्वे च तस्य अचलो विश्वास आसीत्। विज्ञानाधारेण देशस्य प्रगतिः साधनीया इति स पुनः पुनः ब्रवीति स्म। वैज्ञानिकं मनोभावं जनेषु जनयितुं तेन बहुधा प्रयतितम्।

नेहरूमहाशयः श्रेष्ठो लेखकश्चासीत्। आंग्लभाषायां तस्य प्रभुत्वं प्रश्नातीतम्। तस्य ग्रन्थानां पठनेन भारतदेशस्येतिहासः स्पष्टं ज्ञायते। सर्वेषु मतधर्मेषु समानं गौरवं रक्षणीयमिति तत्वं तेन राष्ट्रनायकेन तत्र प्रतिपादितम्।

Version without sandhis

नेहरू-जन्म-दिनम्

भारतवर्षस्य प्रथमः प्रधान-मन्त्री पण्डित: जवाहरलाल-नेहरूः नवम्बर-मासस्य चतुर्दशे दिवसे जातः। देशे विदेशे च लब्ध-विद्या-अभ्यासः नेहरूः भारत-प्रजानां सर्वत:मुख्यै अभिवृद्ध्यै सदा अश्राम्यत्। नव-भारत-शिल्पी इति स: वर्णितः इतिहास-ज्ञैः। तस्य जन्म-दिनं शिशूनां दिनम् इति आचर्यते। शिशूषु नेहरू-महाशस्य असीमा प्रेमा तत्र कारणम्। प्रजातन्त्र-व्यवस्थायां जाति-अतीतत्वे च तस्य अचल: विश्वास: आसीत्। विज्ञान-आधारेण देशस्य प्रगतिः साधनीया इति स: पुनः पुनः ब्रवीति स्म। वैज्ञानिकं मन:भावं जनेषु जनयितुं तेन बहुधा प्रयतितम्।

नेहरू-महाशयः श्रेष्ठ: लेखक: च आसीत्। आंग्ल-भाषायां तस्य प्रभुत्वं प्रश्न-अतीतम्। तस्य ग्रन्थानां पठनेन भारत-देशस्य इतिहासः स्पष्टं ज्ञायते। सर्वेषु मत-धर्मेषु समानं गौरवं रक्षणीयम् इति तत्वं तेन राष्ट्र-नायकेन तत्र प्रतिपादितम्।

Inter linear, literal translation

नेहरू-जन्म-दिनम् Nehru's birthday

भारतवर्षस्य India's प्रथमः first प्रधान-मन्त्री prime minister पण्डित: जवाहरलाल-नेहरूः Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru नवम्बर-मासस्य November month's चतुर्दशे on 14th दिवसे on day जातः was born। देशे In country विदेशे in foreign country च and लब्ध-विद्या-अभ्यासः educated नेहरूः Nehru भारत-प्रजानां Indians' सर्वत:मुख्यै for all round अभिवृद्ध्यै for growth सदा always अश्राम्यत् toiled। नव-भारत-शिल्पी Modern India's Architect इति so स: he वर्णितः described इतिहास-ज्ञैः by historians। तस्य His जन्म-दिनं birthday शिशूनां children's दिनम् day इति so आचर्यते is followed। शिशूषु In children नेहरू-महाशस्य Nehru gentleman's असीमा  boundless प्रेमा love तत्र there कारणम् reason। प्रजातन्त्र-व्यवस्थायां in democracy system जाति-अतीतत्वे in antiquity of caste system च and तस्य his अचल: firm विश्वास: belief आसीत् was। विज्ञान-आधारेण through science-foundation देशस्य country's प्रगतिः growth साधनीया achievable इति so स: he पुनः again पुनः again ब्रवीति says स्म in past। वैज्ञानिकं scientific मन:भावं mindset जनेषु in people जनयितुं to create तेन by him बहुधा often प्रयतितम् attempted.

नेहरू-महाशयः Nehru gentleman श्रेष्ठ: excellent लेखक: writer च also आसीत् was. आंग्ल-भाषायां in English language तस्य his प्रभुत्वं mastery प्रश्न-अतीतम् question-beyond। तस्य his ग्रन्थानां books' पठनेन by reading भारत-देशस्य India-country's इतिहासः history स्पष्टं clear ज्ञायते is known. सर्वेषु in all मत-धर्मेषु in beliefs and religions समानं equal गौरवं respect रक्षणीयम् to be kept इति so तत्वं matter तेन by him राष्ट्र-नायकेन by nation-leader तत्र there प्रतिपादितम् propounded.

Natural translation

Nehru's Birthday

India's first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14th November. Educated in India and abroad, Nehru always toiled towards all round growth of Indians. Historians describe him as the Architect of Modern India. His birthday is celebrated as Children's Day. His boundless love for children is the reason behind this. He had firm belief in democracy and irrelevance of caste system. He repeatedly said that the progress of the country was to be achieved based on science. He often tried to instill scientific mindset among people.

Nehru was also an excellent writer. His command over English language was indisputable. One can understand the history of India by reading his books. As a national leader, he emphasized on equal treatment of all faiths and religions.

Sanskrit: Lesson 1

From the issue of Sudharma, dated November 14, 2014

(Original text of the news article, with some corrections)

For an alternative structure of the lesson (I am more inclined towards this now), click here.

नेहरूजन्मदिनम्

भारतवर्षस्य प्रथमः प्रधानमन्त्री पण्डितो जवाहरलालनेहरूः नवम्बरमासस्य चतुर्दशे दिवसे संजातः। देशे विदेशे च लब्धविद्याभ्यासः नेहरूः भारतप्रजानां सर्वतोमुख्यै अभिवृद्ध्यै सदा अश्राम्यत्। नवभारतशिल्पी इति स वर्णितः इतिहासज्ञैः। तस्य जन्मदिनं शिशूनां दिनमिति आचर्यते। शिशूषु नेहरूमहाशस्य असीमा प्रेमा तत्र कारणम्। प्रजातन्त्रव्यवस्थायां जात्यतीतत्वे च तस्य अचलो विश्वास आसीत्। विज्ञानाधारेण देशस्य प्रगतिः साधनीया इति स पुनः पुनः ब्रवीति स्म। वैज्ञानिकं मनोभावं जनेषु जनयितुं तेन बहुधा प्रयतितम्।

नेहरूमहाशयः श्रेष्ठो लेखकश्चासीत्। आंग्लभाषायां तस्य प्रभुत्वं प्रश्नातीतम्। तस्य ग्रन्थानां पठनेन भारतदेशस्येतिहासः स्पष्टं ज्ञायते। सर्वेषु मतधर्मेषु समानं गौरवं रक्षणीयमिति तत्वं तेन राष्ट्रनायकेन तत्र प्रतिपादितम्।

नेहरू का जन्मदिन

भारतवर्ष के प्रथम प्रधानमंत्री पंडित जवाहरलाल नेहरू का जन्म नवंबर महीने की चैदह तारीख को हुआ था। देश और विदेश में शिक्षाप्राप्त नेहरू भारतवासियों के सर्वमुखी विकास के लिए सदा श्रम करते रहे। इतिहासकार उन्हें नए भारत का शिल्पी कहते हैं। उनका जन्मदिन बाल-दिवस के रूप में मनाया जाता है। बच्चों में नेहरू का असीम प्रेम इसका कारण है। प्रजातंत्र व्यवस्था में और जातिप्रथा की समाप्ति में में उनका अचल विश्वास था। विज्ञान के आधार पर देश की प्रगति होनी चाहिए, ऐसा वे प्रायः कहते थे। वैज्ञानिक मनोभाव लोगों में जागृत करने का उन्होंने बहुधा प्रयास किया।

नेहरू कुशल लेखक भी थे। अंग्रेजी भाषा पर उनका अधिकार निर्विवाद था। उनकी पुस्तकों के पढ़ने से भारत देश का इतिहास भी स्पष्ट होता है। सब मतों और धर्मों की समानता पर भी उस राष्ट्रीय नेता ने बल दिया।

Nehru's Birthday

India's first prime minister, Pandit Jawahallal Nehru was born on 14th November. Educated in India and abroad, Nehru always toiled towards allround growth of Indians. Historians describe him as the Architect of Modern India. His birthday is celebrated as Children's Day. His unbounded love for children is the reason behind this. He had firm belief in democracy and elimination of caste system. He often said that the progress of the country was possible on the foundation of science. He often tried to instill scientific mindset among people.

Nehru was also an excellent writer. His command over English language was undisputable. One can understand the history of India by reading his books. As a national leader, he emphasised equal treatment of all faiths and religions.

1) भारतवर्षस्य = भारतवर्ष का। Of India; India's

2) नवम्बरमासस्य = नवम्बर महीने का। November month's

3) तस्य = उसका। His

4) प्रथमः = प्रथम, पहला। First

5) पण्डितो जवाहरलालनेहरूः = पण्डितः जवाहरलालनेहरूः। 

यहां ‘पण्डितः’ का ‘पण्डितो’ हो गया है। यह एक ‘संधि’ है। ‘अः’ के बाद यदि ग, घ, ङ, ज, झ, ×ा, ड, ढ, ण, द, ध, न, ब, भ, म, य, र, ल, व, ह हो तो ‘अः’ के स्थान पर ‘ओ’ हो जाता है। इसी का एक अन्य उदाहरण है ‘अचलो विश्वास आसीत्’, जिसका मूल रूप है ‘अचलः विश्वासः आसीत्’। विसर्ग के बाद ‘व’ होने पर भी उसका ‘ओ’ हो जाता है। ‘विश्वासः’ का ‘विश्वास’ एक अन्य प्रकार की सन्धि के कारण हुआ है जिसकी चर्चा फिर कभी करेंगे। एक अन्य उदाहरण है ‘श्रेष्ठो लेखकश्चासीत्’ जिसका भी मूल रूप है ‘श्रेष्ठः लेखकः च आसीत्’। 

Here ‘पण्डितः’ has become ‘पण्डितो’. This is a "sandhi". If ‘अः’ is followed by ग, घ, ङ, ज, झ, ×ा, ड, ढ, ण, द, ध, न, ब, भ, म, य, र, ल, व, ह then ‘अः’ is replaced with ‘ओ’ . Another example of this is ‘अचलो विश्वास आसीत्’ the original form of which is ‘अचलः विश्वासः आसीत्’. विश्वासः  has become  विश्वास due to a different kind of sandhi which will be discussed some other time. Another example is ‘श्रेष्ठो लेखकश्चासीत्’ the original form of which is ‘श्रेष्ठः लेखकः च आसीत्’.

Sanskrit Lessons: An Introduction

Welcome to this experimental project to help people learn Sanskrit from the comforts of their home, at their own pace.

The idea is as follows. There is a daily Sanskrit newspaper, Sudharma, published from Mysore. (Yes, unbelievable though it may sound, there is a Sanskrit daily; only two pages of tabloid size; but nonetheless, it is as amazing endeavour. The annual subscription of this newspaper, in India only, is just Rs 400. It is also freely available on the Internet here.)

Using one news article from this newspaper, I would write a periodic email / a blog which will 

• provide a Hindi and / or English translation,
• pick just five words or concepts from that article and explain them. I would love to (and tried to) include more examples of the same, include some exercises, with solutions posted in the next mail / blog, but realized that that is too much work and I would not be able to sustain that.

Link to the first sample lesson

A sample post, as the first lesson, is available here, for you to comment on. 
For an alternative structure of the lesson (I am more inclined towards this now), click here.

This is the first attempt, and based on readers' feedback we may refine its structure, presentation, depth of coverage, etc.

I am not sure whether the format and presentation I have in mind will work for people who are absolute beginners in Sanskrit. in fact, I am doubtful if it will. But it should, I hope, work well with people who have some exposure to Sanskrit, perhaps in their school days in India as the "third language", or through some other means. They may have lost touch with it for years but if they have had some foundation of Sanskrit, I think it would work better for them compared to people who have never learned any Sanskrit in their life earlier.

In the current format, it will certainly not work for people who are not familiar with the Devanagari script. I am not, as of now, fluent with, comfortable with, or keen on the phonetic transliteration of Sanskrit text in the Roman script.

The idea for this experiment had been there in my mind for a long time but it was dormant; it got a boost during a chat I had with my American friend in the virtual world, sometime a student, and a keen Sanskritophile, Mark Bordelon late last week.

If you haven't lost interest yet, and have looked at the first post, I would request you to provide me your detailed feedback, including the following:

• ·         Feedback on its structure, presentation, content, etc
• ·         Are interested in learning Sanskrit through this initiative? If yes, then why?
• ·         Will you be interested in mails / blogs as per this first draft? If yes, then why?
• ·         What would be a suitable platform for such lessons: an email group / a blog / a free site like Google Site / some other?
• ·         Do you think the lessons should be in Hindi / English / both? Writing them in both the languages, of course, means that much more work for me, though it widens its reach at the same time. Also, there are more typing related challenges when the text uses two languages, in switching from one keyboard to another, or in converting from a Hindi font to Unicode for proper rendering on a webpage. If I have to type only in Hindi, I can type at a higher speed using MS Word and then convert it to Unicode using a free web-based tool. But if the text contains both Hindi and English, then I have to convert each chunk of Hindi separately.
• ·         What frequency of such mails / blog posts do you think would be appropriate?
• ·         What is your current level of familiarity with Sanskrit?
• ·         Any suggestions on how to make this initiative popular?
• ·         Would you be willing to take some responsibilities if we try to build a community of people interested in this experiment? Such as translating my lessons from Hindi to English or the other way round?
• ·         (To the three in this list who are masters of Sanskrit: any additional feedback from you? Would you / somebody else you know be willing to take up responsibility for at least some such lessons?)

After running the pilot with this small group for a few lessons, we may take this initiative public using an appropriate forum.

I look forward to hearing from you, even if to decline.

Thanks.

Pradyumn

PS: Just in case, you are cusious. The genesis of the idea came from a variety of sources. Oneof them was reading about some work done by FC Kohli, former Chairman of TCS, reproduced in his own words below (http://courses.wcupa.edu/rbove/eco343/040Compecon/S.%20Asia/India/040920tech.txt):

Q: Tell me about your computer-aided adult-literacy program. What made you       pursue it?

      A: [For years,] the Indian government has been spending a lot of money and

      resources on adult literacy. It has been using conventional methods. While

      there has been some progress, it's inadequate, considering that about 250

      million adults in India are still illiterate. There are constraints: You

      need 200 hours of instruction for full literacy, and you need trained

      teachers to teach. If I'm 25 and working in a field or as a housewife, how

      will I find those 200 hours? As for teachers, we need 500,000 trained

      teachers to come to 500,000 villages. Where will they come from?

      So I started thinking: How can we learn, recognize images, retain, recall.

      I found that we usually look at images and icons -- pictures, faces, and

      words are all icons -- and relate it to a sound pattern. Then it sticks.

      Maybe someone in the world has tried this out, but not in this manner. The

      key was, when done with the program, the person should be able to read a

      newspaper in their own language.

      It needed a vocabulary of 400-600 words. So, starting in early 2000, three

      or four of us -- three TCS engineers and a linguist -- prepared a

      vocabulary of 500 words. And we prepared the lessons in a month or so.

      Then we experimented, and the first lesson was in a village called Medak,

      outside Hyderabad. We upgraded the keyboard in Telegu [the local

      language]. And we got 20 volunteers for lessons, thrice a week for 1.5

      hours each. After 8-to-10 weeks, people started reading the newspaper. Our

      major experiment was in Guntur, again in the same state. We had the same

      results.

      We have experimented in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, and Bengali with the same

      results. Our experiment was complete. We've told the government to take

      over. We've shown what we can do with a sampling of 50,000 people in five

      languages.

      We have a social message: We want people to not just read the newspaper,

      but read their land records, the political manifestos -- not just hear

      speeches during election time. People are reading their children's books

      now.

Another inspiration was the site: www.mindurmarathi.com. And some other mailing lists and FB groups on somewhat similar lines.