About This Blog

Namaste!

As a long-time student of the Sanskrit language, I want to share with others the joys, the "nectar", of this ancient and beautiful language. Future posts may be almost anything related to it:  new things I learn, controversies about it, lessons, translations, answers to questions, etc. A word of warning: because of this range of possibilities, some posts may be suited mainly for people very familiar with the topic of that particular post, while others will be beginner-friendly. The range of Sanskrit literature means that many different areas of knowledge, as well different religions and philosphies may be touched upon. I may also delve into the development of language in India from Sanskrit to the modern languages of India - of which, some are directly related to it, but even most of the others have borrowed heavily from its vocabulary. Readers are welcome to ask for clarifications when needed.

The name of the blog is inspired by the name of a classical text on the discipline of bhakti-yoga. It means, 'The Ocean of the Nectar of Sanskrit".

I first heard of Sanskrit as a child. My father had studied linguistics as a student at Stonybrook University, and instilled in me a love of languages and of the science of linguistics (that is, knowledge about languages, how they develop and how different languages are related to each other, among other things). One of the things he told me about was a language from India called Sanskrit, which was the oldest known (in writing, and thus proven) language in the Indo-European family of languages. (Nowadays, linguists have determined that inscriptions in Hittite are older than written remains of early Sanskrit.) A number of years later, in my early teen years, my parents gave me a Sanskrit grammar (Whitney's, for those who may be familiar with it) for my collection of language books. That allowed me to begin trying to learn it for the first time, though it is a slow and difficult method - just studying a grammar. It was a few years later still that I first acquired a book actually in Sanskrit, at least partly - a volume of a scriptural translation and commentary. With this, I had something to practice on, and from that point began to seek out other such books, and other grammars and learning resources.

Because I have always studied many languages, I have not concentrated on any one language, including Sanskrit, as would be really helpful in gaining high-level mastery and fluency. Instead, I have to consider myself a long-time intermediate student at best. I hope that by sharing with and helping others I may be able to improve further, as well as to inspire others to learn Sanskrit, even a little.