Elementary Sanskrit I · Middle Eastern, South Asian, And African Studies
I learned a lot of script, reading, writing, and translating.
Paragraphs to translate which you go over in class. Weekly/bi-weekly quizzes on vocabulary. Workload is certainly manageable. Worry more about actively learning from Vasudeva Ji and all that he has to offer rather than worrying about the grade... you will do just fine.
Typical of a language class. Homework, midterm, final, a quiz or several along the way.
Basic Sanskrit grammar and vocabulary, and how to translate some Sanskrit phrases to English
You would think Sanskrit is difficult... and it is. It requires a lot of memorization and at first sight, it seems insurmountable. But Vasudeva makes it all very manageable. He goes quickly through the material but understands that it will all take a while for you to digest... so he is lenient and his quizzes are relatively easy - just to make sure that you are keeping up with the vocabulary. He usually goes over everything you need to know in class so make sure you attend class. And as the other reviewer below ... I totally agree that you acquire a different perspective from Vasudeva. You learn not only about the language but also the history of Sanskrit, about the philosophies underlying the language and India, about various traditions. If you put in the effort, you will certainly enjoy a very enriching semester. As a side note... if you are taking Hindi and want to learn more in depth.. then definitely take Sanskrit.
True, Sanskrit's extremely difficult. In fact, I'm increasingly convinced that every Sanskrit writer was a sort of proto-James Joyce, what with the language's abundant punnery and obscurantist prose. Nevertheless, Guru Tubb is as good as it gets. He's obviously devoted to the language and to his students, and he's a genuinely interesting human being without any evident aversion to digression. But really, Sanskrit is harder than Greek. Think twice before you take it.
Devanagari script and conjuncts; rules for external sandhi (joining together words); present tense conjugations, gana system; nominal and verbal paradigms, relative/correlative pronouns - by the end of the semester, you are able to translate simple Sanskrit paragraphs into English and English sentences into Sanskrit
Very managable--most of it is just self-inflicted: it's up to you to memorize the paradigms, vocab, and grammar of Sanskrit; quizzes once a week, and a final (no midterm this time!)
the script, basic grammer, sandhi, slow pronunciation
I think anyone interested in learning Sanskrit—especially with an eye towards the nuances of the language, and the rich literary, historical, and cultural context it is situated in—would get a lot out of this class! 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2021 Course: MDESUN1401_001_2021_3-ELEMENTARYSANSKRITI : MDESUN1401_001_2021_3 - ELEMENTARY SANSKRIT I Instructor: Shiv Subramaniam