It must be a few years short of 3 decades since I attended my last Sanskrit class in school. Frankly, I had opted for it since it was considered a scoring subject. But then I liked the language and excelled at it too. Then I completed SSC and lost touch with Sanskrit after that. But somewhere at the back of my mind I always nursed the desire to get back in touch with it one day.
A couple of years ago, during one of my evening walks, I came across the teacher who had been instrumental in helping me studying for the language. I planned to approach him to see if he was interested in teaching me again. But soon it became apparent that he was suffering from dementia. Forget about studying, I couldn't even make myself go and say Hello to him. Sadly, he passed away soon after that. :-(
So, about a month back, when I saw the ad for Sanskrit training, I decided to get enrolled. The duration is for 6 months - manageable. I was finally going to get my wish to pursue the language once again. :-) And it will be my tribute to my late teacher.
I walked into the class with a mix of trepidation (surely I must have forgotten all that was taught so many years ago!) and excitement. I immediately saw that there weren't many takers for the course. The class consisted of just 8 students - two of them were school-children. But I wasn't disappointed as I never imagined that the class would be brimming to the capacity anyways.
The teacher began the class with recital of a few verses (shlokas) - gently correcting the pronunciation as she moved about the class. Then she wrote down 10 sentences on the blackboard - along the lines of I read, I write and I eat. The idea was to get us acquainted with a few verbs so that when we learn enough of crammer we can string sentences together.
We were taught the following rules:
1. If 'म ' comes at the end of the line, it is to be written as 'म्'. e.g. 'शरीरम्' in 'परोपकारार्थम् इदं शरीरम्'
2. If a word ends in 'म' and the following word begins with a vowel, the preceding word should end in 'म्'. e.g. 'परोपकारार्थम्' in 'परोपकारार्थम् इदं शरीरम्'
3. If a word ends in 'म' and the following word begins with a consonant, the preceding word should not end in 'म'. e.g. ' इदं' in 'परोपकारार्थम् इदं शरीरम्'
And the following one:
1. दंत to be written as दन्त
2. 'कंठ' to be written as 'कण्ठ'
i.e. basically the Anuswara is to be replaced with the last consonant of the corresponding row in the alphabet.
We did a couple of exercises based on these rules, recited a verse for universal unity and that was the end of the first class.
A couple of years ago, during one of my evening walks, I came across the teacher who had been instrumental in helping me studying for the language. I planned to approach him to see if he was interested in teaching me again. But soon it became apparent that he was suffering from dementia. Forget about studying, I couldn't even make myself go and say Hello to him. Sadly, he passed away soon after that. :-(
So, about a month back, when I saw the ad for Sanskrit training, I decided to get enrolled. The duration is for 6 months - manageable. I was finally going to get my wish to pursue the language once again. :-) And it will be my tribute to my late teacher.
I walked into the class with a mix of trepidation (surely I must have forgotten all that was taught so many years ago!) and excitement. I immediately saw that there weren't many takers for the course. The class consisted of just 8 students - two of them were school-children. But I wasn't disappointed as I never imagined that the class would be brimming to the capacity anyways.
The teacher began the class with recital of a few verses (shlokas) - gently correcting the pronunciation as she moved about the class. Then she wrote down 10 sentences on the blackboard - along the lines of I read, I write and I eat. The idea was to get us acquainted with a few verbs so that when we learn enough of crammer we can string sentences together.
We were taught the following rules:
1. If 'म ' comes at the end of the line, it is to be written as 'म्'. e.g. 'शरीरम्' in 'परोपकारार्थम् इदं शरीरम्'
2. If a word ends in 'म' and the following word begins with a vowel, the preceding word should end in 'म्'. e.g. 'परोपकारार्थम्' in 'परोपकारार्थम् इदं शरीरम्'
3. If a word ends in 'म' and the following word begins with a consonant, the preceding word should not end in 'म'. e.g. ' इदं' in 'परोपकारार्थम् इदं शरीरम्'
And the following one:
1. दंत to be written as दन्त
2. 'कंठ' to be written as 'कण्ठ'
i.e. basically the Anuswara is to be replaced with the last consonant of the corresponding row in the alphabet.
We did a couple of exercises based on these rules, recited a verse for universal unity and that was the end of the first class.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment