Sanskrit Manual: A Quick-Reference Guide to the Phonology and Grammar of Classical Sanskrit

This book is a convenient quick-reference guide to the phonology and grammar of Classical Sanskrit, for use by university students and others. It presents, in easily read tables, essential reference information such as the rules of sandhi, the declensional and conjugational paradigms, and the principal parts of major verbs. Tables make up about two-thirds of the book. The remainder is text, with guidance on how to use the tables and explanations of the relevant grammatical principles. Romanized transcription is used throughout, and some innovative modes of description and presentation are adopted. Particular features are a table of the principal parts of 432 verbs and a set of three indexes—to verb stems, verb endings and noun endings. This Manual will be found a valuable, ‘user-friendly’ companion to existing grammars, such as Whitney’s. Though primarily intended for beginning and intermediate students, it will be of use to scholars working with Sanskrit at any level. Roderick S. Bucknell studied and travelled extensively in India and other Asian countries, before returning to Australia to do a Ph.D. in linguistics. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Chinese and Indian religions at the University of Queensland. His thoughts on the methodology of teaching and learning Sanskrit derive in part from his own early experience as a student of the language. He studied it both in India, under a pandit following completely traditional methods, and in Australia, under a specialist in Indo-European historical linguistics—contrasting approaches that highlighted some fundamental methodological issues. Besides linguistic problems Dr. Bucknell’s research and publication covers various aspects of Buddhist studies.