How to Get Started with Sanskrit (a Blueprint)

When I began studying Sanskrit consistently about four years ago, I had no idea where to start or what was the best approach. I tried a few lessons here and there, but none of them aligned with my goals.

Traditional teachers want to teach you every single grammar rule before you start reading the scriptures as if you were a teenager with your entire life ahead of you!  

That's why I decided to study on my own, and I don't regret it.  However, I do wish I'd had a clear blueprint from the start—a simple overview of what’s really important and what isn’t. It could have saved me a lot of time and frustration. 

So this is the overview that I wish I had.  I’m not trying to cover every tiny detail, but rather to highlight the most important aspects of the language. This way, you’ll know where to focus your energy and how to get started effectively. 

I hope this overview will also help to demystify the language.  

Although it might seem complex and intimidating, Sanskrit is not an impossible language to learn.  But it does require time and dedication, especially for non-native speakers of Indian languages, like myself.  

Learning the script

Learning the Devanagari script, the most commonly used script to write Sanskrit, might already seem like a big challenge but it is actually the easiest obstacle to overcome.  

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः

Yes, the characters might seem quite strange at first, but seriously, the alphabet is straightforward.  

Since Sanskrit is a phonetic language, each alphabet letter represents one sound and one sound only.  These sounds never change. So once you’ve memorized the shapes and sounds of each letter, you’ll be able to write and read any text in Sanskrit perfectly—even if you don’t know the meaning!

That's way easier than English, where sounds vary a lot.  For instance, compare the sounds of the following words: publish vs student, door vs book, bear vs beard vs heart.  Did you notice how the vowel sounds change? It's crazy! 

To learn the pronunciation of each Sanskrit letter, all you need to focus on is:

• How much air you use for each sound.
• Where the sound originates from in your throat and mouth.
• Where your tongue is placed or when your lips touch.

That's why the alphabet letters are grouped in a chart based on how their sounds are made. This chart is a helpful reference for pronunciation and for applying sandhi rules (explained further below).

But it is not useful for learning the alphabet.  Instead, the best way to learn the alphabet is by writing simple words and sentences.  

In this way not only learning becomes fun, but you'll naturally learn the most useful and frequent letters first while at the same time you start to grow your vocabulary.  

By the way, if you need help with learning the script feel free to reach out to me.

Do you need Devanagari to learn Sanskrit?

Now, strictly speaking, you don't need to learn the Devanagari script to study Sanskrit.  You can use the standard Romanization of Sanskrit, known as IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which uses diacritical marks to represent Sanskrit sounds with the Roman alphabet.  

For example, here is the transliteration of the Sanskrit text I showed you above, which means “Om peace, peace, peace.”:

oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ 

—the underdots, overlines, overdots, and accents are known as diacritics

However, learning the Devanagari script will give you access to a much wider range of textbooks and other resources to continue learning or acquiring the language.  

Besides, many transliterations of Sanskrit scriptures don't use IAST, so you won’t know how to pronounce the words correctly unless you know Devanagari.   

Plus, Devanagari is the same script used for Hindi and Marathi, two of the most used languages in India.

In short, learning Devanagari is definitely a worthwhile investment of your time.  

Once you’ve learned the script by practicing with words and sentences, the next step is to get an overview of the language’s structure so you can begin to make sense of it.

The Structure of the Sanskrit Language

To understand the structure of Sanskrit, you’ve gotta think a bit like Yoda:

“Powerful you have become. The dark side I sense in you.” – Yoda

Although in Sanskrit that would probably read more like:

“You powerful have become.  In you the dark side I sense.”

That's because the standard sentence structure in Sanskrit is usually subject, object, and verb, like this: 

rāma vanam gacchati—Rāma (subject) to the forest (object) goes (verb).  

 

However, since the information about the function or role of each word is contained within its ending (rāma vanam gacchati)—as explained further below—the word order is very flexible.

So whether you say rāma vanam gacchati, vanam rāma gacchati, or gacchati rāma vanam, they all mean "Rāma goes to the forest."

When translating a Sanskrit sentence into English, it’s helpful to identify the verb first (usually placed at the end of the sentence), then look for the subject and object. You'll be able to distinguish them by their word endings.

Broadly speaking, adjectives or other modifying words will appear before the word they modify. Adjectives and participles will usually match the endings of the word they describe.

The importance of word endings

In English, we use prepositions to indicate the function of a particular word, like from the village, to the temple, on the table, in the house, the book of Rāma, with the friend, or for his wife.  

In Sanskrit, all the functions expressed by English prepositions—such as 'from,' 'to,' 'on,' 'in,' 'at,' 'with,' 'by,' and 'for'—are expressed by the particular ending or suffix attached to the word.  

Not only that but its grammatical role as subject or object, and its number (singular, dual, plural) are also encoded in these endings.  

For instance, the -sya ending in the word narasya (“of the man”) tells us that it is singular and carries the sense of belonging to. In this example, “belonging to the man.” This sense or role that a word plays is known as its case ending or vibhakti.

This applies to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, numerals, and participles, which are known as nominals.  

For verbs, the endings provide information about the person (I, you, he/she/it), number (singular, dual, plural), and the tense or mood of the verb.  

For instance, the "ti" ending in the word gacchati (he/she/it goes) tells us that this is the 3rd person singular (he/she/it) present indicative form (goes) of the verb root gam.

So, one of the most important things in understanding Sanskrit is to pay close attention to word endings. By becoming familiar with these endings or suffixes, you'll be able to grasp the function or role of each word within a sentence.

For nouns, all the different endings are summarized in declension tables, which vary depending on the noun's gender and the final letter of its stem. For verbs, these are presented in conjugation tables.

You don't need to memorize these tables.  You only need to be familiar with them.  You'll naturally learn the most important word declension progressively as you read texts you enjoy.

Luckily, there's a set of words that don't undergo any changes at all. These are called indeclinables. So, in Sanskrit, there are three main types of words: nominals, verbs, and indeclinables.

Rules for the combination of words

To allow the language to flow smoothly, when two words meet, they often undergo some sound changes at their meeting points or junctions.  These changes are known as sandhi (literally, "junction" or "point of contact").

For example, the sentence saḥ aham (meaning "that I am") becomes so'ham after applying sandhi.

This is similar to English contractions like "didn't" vs. "did not," or French liaison, e.g.,  j'aime.

Although it's not mandatory, sandhi is used extensively in Sanskrit, and as you can see from the example above, it can alter word endings. So it is important to become familiar with sandhi rules. 

Luckily, the rules are easy to understand. The challenge is that there are many of them. Again, the best way to learn them is progressively, as they appear in the texts you're reading.

Knowing sandhi rules is also important to distinguish compound words (which are also used extensively in Sanskrit) from regular words joined by sandhi.

As you can see in the example above, so'ham is not a single word.  These are two separate words that appear together because of sandhi.

Expanding your vocabulary

Once you are able to read and write, and you have a basic understanding of the structure of the language then all you have to do is continue expanding your vocabulary.  

This is the key to understanding any text you read: vocabulary. Even without knowing sandhi rules, declension tables, conjugation tables, and so on, having a strong vocabulary opens the door to understanding the language.

For instance, one of the difficulties in understanding compound words is a lack of vocabulary. Without a solid vocabulary, it’s hard to tell where one word ends and the next begins in a compound.

Also, with a sufficiently extensive vocabulary you could infer the meaning of a text even if you don't know any grammar.

That being said, being familiar with the declension and conjugation tables will make your life easier when trying to acquire vocabulary.  

For example, the word narasya means “of the man,” and nareṇa means “by” or “with the man.”

Here’s the good news—you don’t need to memorize both words!

The stem of the word (without any case ending) is nara (man), and the endings sya and ena (which will be the same for other masculine words ending in -a) tell us the function of the word. 

So you only need to know one word, the stem form, and be familiar with the different case endings.

By the way, since the case endings depend on the gender and the last letter of the stem, it's important that when you learn vocabulary you learn the stem word with its gender.

The challenge in learning vocabulary is that in Sanskrit there can be many words for the same object or person.  On top of that, a single word can have multiple meanings.  

This makes acquiring vocabulary a very time-consuming process.  

That's why it is important to acquire the language by using resources or content that you enjoy with the help of translations or a tutor.  In this way, you'll be able to stay motivated in the long run. 

What is the best way to learn Sanskrit?

As all language experts suggest, the best way to learn a language is not by studying grammar.  Instead, it's about acquiring the language naturally by exposing yourself to content that you understand and enjoy.  

If you decide to study on your own, I would suggest you start with a good reader.  A reader is a book designed to help you learn a language by providing simplified stories along with translations, vocabulary, and easy-to-follow grammatical explanations.

I would recommend:

• The Sanskrit Language, An Introductory Grammar and Reader by Walter Harding Maurer
• Assimil Le Sanskrit by Nalini Balbir (only available for French speakers)

You could also start by reading children's stories such as this book by Shubha Vengadakrishnan: Kathāgucchaḥ—Simple stories in Sanskrit with English translations.

Additionally, you can find numerous free resources on YouTube.   Here is a good playlist of spoken Sanskrit lessons for children.

However, you will need to know Devanagari to use any of these books and resources.

You could also use this excellent free online resource to learn Sanskrit through stories.  You can change the script to Roman if needed.

Another option is to learn Sanskrit while reading the texts or scriptures that you are truly interested in, even if they’re way above your level.

In that case, you’ll need a reliable word-for-word translation of the text and the support of a tutor who can break it down and explain it—just like a reader would.

I recommend a few word-for-word translations of the Bhagavad Gita in this article. 

What about grammar?

Grammar is best learned in context, that is, learning grammar naturally as you progress reading texts. That's what a reader does.  It will give you the grammatical explanations relevant to the text that you are reading, and no more than that.

The problem with a grammar book is that it is not immediately useful for whatever you want to learn the language for. Instead, it often overwhelms you with tons of rules and details that you might rarely put into practice.

Plus, you might end up thinking that knowing every grammar rule and technical term is essential to understanding a language. That’s why I believe a grammar book should mainly be used as a reference guide.  

That said, I didn't use a reader to start my Sanskrit journey.  I used a grammar instead, because at that time, that was the only resource that I could find. Besides, even the most basic children's stories were too difficult for me back then.

Studying grammar wasn't a waste of time, though.  

By working through a grammar, I became my own tutor. So, while I may not have enough vocabulary to fully understand everything I read, I can now break down sentences and figure out the meanings on my own.

That's how I was able to create a word-for-word translation of the Sivananda Yoga prayers and the Ashtanga Yoga prayers.

But it took me a couple of years to get through those grammar books from start to finish and reach that point.

Even so, I still believe the best way to learn Sanskrit is by reading the texts you love with the help of a tutor. If that’s not an option, then using a reader and children’s stories is the next best thing.

However, if you find even the simplest reader or children’s stories too challenging, starting with a grammar textbook might be your best bet.

There’s only one grammar book I’d recommend for self-study, or rather, two:

• Introduction to Sanskrit: Part One by Thomas Egenes
• Introduction to Sanskrit: Part Two by Thomas Egenes

Seriously, don’t waste your time on other grammar books. These two are the most accessible, comprehensible, and closest to what a reader would offer, especially if you are a complete beginner. You can always use other grammar books as reference guides or to complement your studies.

Summary

To sum up, once you've learned the script, the key to reading and understanding Sanskrit is building a vast vocabulary.  

That being said, to be able to make sense of the words you encounter you should be able to distinguish nominals from verbs, and identify the function each word plays.  You can achieve this by paying attention to word endings, that is, being familiar with the declension forms for nominals and conjugation forms for verbs.  

Since sandhi rules affect word endings, familiarity with these rules will help you spot where sandhi has been applied.  Knowing these sandhi rules will also help you to differentiate compound words from joined words due to sandhi.  

The best way to learn all this is by acquiring the language progressively and naturally.  Focus on engaging with content that interests you and suits your level, such as reading texts you enjoy, ideally with the guidance of a tutor or using translations.

If you need help learning the script or if you are looking for a tutor please feel free to reach out to me.  And if you would like to be notified about my upcoming online Sanskrit course, consider becoming one of my free or paid Patreon members.