Sanskrit Grammar (Dover Language Guides)

This is a classic Sanskrit grammar. It is geared more for the advanced student or scholar than for the beginner, but it does have insightful details for students of any level.

I like the introductory sections and discussion of differences in classical and Vedic Sanskrit. Still it moves quickly into more detail than can be absorbed with casual study. It is a good reference text -- easier to find things than some of the other grammatical texts -- and it answers some basic questions, like the history of the word spacing in modern texts. But still engages in the vocabulary of advanced grammar without defining the terms -- for example, desiderative, aorist, etc.

Very dissatisfied. Writing is too small and everything is so compacted that it is difficult to read

When Europeans first stumbled upon Sanskrit, the Indians had been working from a grammar by Panini for over a millennium. The problem is that Sanskrit was already several hundred years old by the time Panini's grammar took its form, and it's not clear that he and his fellow scholars quite understood the language for which they were writing the rules. As a result, you wind up with phenomena analogous to English speakers' memorization of rules like "i before e except after c..." that aren't always helpful, or even correct. Since Panini set the standard, his work applies, as far as I understand it, to most things written after his time. But for earlier texts, notably the Vedas, the Indian/Indologist traditions of grammar can make things more, not less, confusing.Whitney set out to make a grammar of Sanskrit the same way you'd do for any other previously unknown language. The model he fit Sanskrit into is definitely European and it may be strained in places. But this is a sincere effort to document what happens in Sanskrit within the actual texts, as opposed to laying down the rules that tradition had passed along. As a reference, it is therefore useful for seeing how the earliest Sanskrit really worked. It is, as another reviewer noted, a shortcoming that there is nothing on syntax. However, for the morphology of Sanskrit from its earliest days, this is an excellent work.Note that this is a reference grammar, and not a textbook. If you try to learn Sanskrit from this and this alone, you will not get too far. Better to start with Perry's Sanskrit Primer, which combines the vocabulary and exercises from a German primer by Buhler with Whitney's explanations of key points.

I've used it in Conjunction with Lanmans Sanskrit Reader for a number of years, both are keyed to one another.Although a reference I've also used it as a text from time to time- cover to cover.In addition to the inherent difficulties of Sanskrit, this Grammar is poorly organized in some areas and lacks cohesion.In a University setting, with a competent, effective Teacher this Grammar and the Reader would be a good choice of Material.For Independent Students, such as myself, let me assure you, it's a hard way to go.