Advanced Level of Spoken Sanskrit

By Prof. Anuradha Choudry | IIT Kharagpur

Learners enrolled: 1338 | Exam registration: 51

ABOUT THE COURSE : A good foundation in Sanskrit can serve as a master key for anyone interested in accessing the extensive primary sources related to various subjects of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) which have been globally recognised as a vast repository of profound knowledge and wisdom and that the National Education Policy (NEP) is proposing to introduce into the education curricula in the near future.The first part of this course titled ‘Introduction to Basic Spoken Sanskrit’ was offered in August 2018, which generated sufficient interest in the students, many of whom, requested for a follow up class. The second level, ‘Intermediate Level of Spoken Sanskrit’ launched in August 2019 created a demand for the next level which led to the designing of this ‘Advanced Level of Spoken Sanskrit’ Course.The objective of this course is to give students a deeper understanding and appreciation of Sanskrit as a living language by providing them with its different semantic and syntactic tools. It also aims to offer them a taste of the rich literary legacy that it enshrines so that they feel enthused enough to delve further into its treasures with a greater sense of confidence and independence.This course will be relevant for students across various disciplines who have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit because it offers the scope of potentially enhancing their language acquisition skills by providing them with a linguistic framework that can facilitate the learning of several related and new languages. In addition to this, the practice of speaking Sanskrit which is famous for its precise grammatical structure could prove to be a helpful tool in systematizing the thinking process itself and improving expression which in turn could have innumerable other rippling beneficial effects.

PRE-REQUISITE : Knowledge of an Intermediate Level of Sanskrit OR those who have completed the course on Intermediate Level of Spoken Sanskrit.

INTENDED AUDIENCE : This is a language course and therefore it would be relevant for students from different disciplinary backgrounds of science, technology, computer sciences and humanities and social sciences.

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	8 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit Points :	2
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	20 Jan 2025
End Date :	14 Mar 2025
Enrollment Ends :	27 Jan 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	14 Feb 2025
Exam Date :	23 Mar 2025 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Overview of the different aspects of the Sanskrit language; Revision of the main features of Intermediate Level of Spoken Sanskrit – nouns and verbs; Revision and practice of upasarga-s or prefixes; Daily vocabulary; Poetic verses, conversations and stories

Week 2: Revision and practice of sandhi (Vowel with vowel / Vowel with consonant / Consonant with consonant / Aspirant with vowel or consonant; Introduction of declensions with new word endings and tenses – 1; Daily Vocabulary; Poetic verses, conversations and stories
Week 3: Introduction of declensions with new word endings and tenses – 2; Introduction of 10 la-kāras (10 forms of verb conjugations); Daily vocabulary; Poetic verses, conversations and stories
Week 4: Practice with more verbs in different moods and tenses; Introduction of karmavācyam or Passive Voice ; Practice of sentence structures with different questions using new noun forms
Week 5: Introduction of declensions with new word endings and tenses – 3; Introduction and practice of different pratyaya-s or suffixes and their application; Daily vocabulary; Poetic verses, conversations and stories
Week 6: Introduction of declensions with new word endings and tenses – 4; Introduction to different avyaya-s or indeclinables and their application; Daily Vocabulary; Poetic verses, conversations and stories
Week 7: Introduction and practice of samāsa-s or compound words; Summary of the sentence structures using the plural with different questions; Poetic verse, reading and comprehension, conversations
Week 8: Practice with a variety of word endings, various verbs in different moods and tenses; Summary of the portions that were covered in the course; Poetic verse, reading and comprehension, conversations

Books and references

Bhatt, M. G. (1999). Karakam, Bengaluru: Samskrita Bharati.
Bhatt, M. G. (1999). Samasah, Bengaluru: Samskrita Bharati.
Bhatt, M. G. (1998). Sandhih, Bengaluru: Samskrita Bharati.
Hegde, J. (2000). Natvanijantam, Bengaluru: Samskrita Bharati.
Kota, P. (2013). Shubhashitani. Retrieved September 25, 2019, from http://subhashitani.wordsofwisdom.in/:http //subhashitani.wordsofwisdom.in/2013/02
Krishnamacharya, T. R. (2009). Brihat Dhatu Rupavali: Sanskrit Ebooks. Retrieved September 24, 2019, from Sanskrit Ebooks: http://www.sanskritebooks.org/2009/06/brihad-dhatu-rupavali/
Kumari, S. (1993). Sanskrita Chitrapadakoshah, Mysuru: Bharatiya Bhasha Sansthanam
Narendra. (1997). Functional Sanskrit: its communicative aspect. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Narendra. (2003). Speak Sanskrit: the easy way. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Roy, A. (Ed.). (1977). The Message of the Gita: As Interpreted by Sri Aurobindo. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.
Samkrita-vyavahaara-saahasree (Samskrit-English), New Delhi: Samskrita Bharati.
Sampad, & Vijay. (2005). The Wonder that is Sanskrit. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society.

Instructor bio

Prof. Anuradha Choudry

IIT Kharagpur

Dr.AnuradhaChoudry is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. She has an interdisciplinary backgroundin Sanskrit, Yoga, Indian Psychology and is well-versed in various languages. In 2007, she was awarded the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship of the European Union for a MLit in Crossways in European Humanities. She has been a Visiting Faculty for Sanskrit in Ghent University, Belgium, and other Institutions and works closely as an Instructor for Yoga Psychology and Sanskrit and mantras for several organizations worldwide including the European Union of Yoga and the Irish Yoga Associationamong others.

She also had conducted and organized several workshops, conferences and seminars in India and abroad.

Her publications includetwo books on Happiness - Indian Perspectives (2017) and Perspectives on Indian Psychology (2013), several articles and a few book chapters.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: March 23, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 6 assignments out of the total 8 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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