Sanskrit Documents

Projects List


This document is prepared to give directions to Sanskrit related activities and to help volunteers identify their interests with possible projects. Believe it or not, project based action, like setting up goal in any effort, appears to be the only way to bring up long term effects! This list may require update so please check before undertaking any activity.

The following text includes some of the work in progress or pending items and topics, texts in the wishlist and software tools. Additional information is available from Sanskrit FAQ.

Whether through a newsgroup or personal studies, please keep your interest in Sanskrit and Indology-related activities growing, either by reading texts, compiling information and books, or working on projects. There is something for everyone here!

If you like to volunteer for any of these projects, please browse the volunteer_help.html file and familiarize with the available tools.

If you find this list useful, feel free to circulate it to your friends who can also contribute to your improvement in Sanskrit just/at least by associating with you :-).


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A list of proposed projects

The following items are not complete by any means. Lot more information is available on each and is not included to keep the file size short! The names in the parenthesis refer to those you should contact for more information. You could always write to sanskrit@cheerful.com with your inquiries. We welcome your ideas to improve and expand the list.


  1. Sanskrit Dictionary

    Participate in preparing an online Sanskrit Words glossary. One line meaning of words is targeted for time being. For details, access

  2. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gita Stories

    Extract gita-s and stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata A list of types of Gita-s is available. allgita.itx | allgita.asc | allgita.ps. A stand alone file for each of the stories could be prepared. Someone who has books with Gita-s other than Bhagavadgita should come forward to supply information and proofread. Portions from Mahabharata can be extracted from encoded text for better understanding. Please see available Gita files. Contents of the Mahabharata are given in mahalist.itx | mahalist.ps.

  3. Maintain and Improve the web and email interfaces

    An on-line interface developed by Hari Adiseshu is available where one can type the text in English ITRANS scheme and the output is obtained in Devanagari interactively, right away! Please check it at http://sanskritdocuments.org/web-interface/

    An email utility, developed by Atul Narkhede for creation of devanagari output and receiving to your account over email is also available, see email-interface readme file for more details and examples.

  4. Why Sanskrit Discussion

    Initiate and participate in discussion `Why Sanskrit?'.
    • Why should we learn it?
    • Are we learning or conversing in Sanskrit merely because it is our `ancient' language?
    • What are the reasons that it is not widely used?
    • Does it need revival?
    • What can we do to help those who are teaching and learning Sanskrit?
    • Is Sanskrit study going to jeopardize our professional/technical work?
    • Is speaking Sanskrit going to create a class of people in isolation?
    • How can we be better humans by persuing studies in Sanskrit?
    • Is there a tendancy to treat everything in Sanskrit as sacred and powerful?
    • What are the reasons for opposition to Sanskrit? Gautam Buddha did not adopt it for teaching since he preferred Prakrit-Pali to make common person understand the revelations.
    • Is it for entertainment in disguise?

    Those interested in responding could reply addressing each question and more OR write an article on this subject. (Couple of responses are already in!) Someone should collect all the responses, document and edit them for everyone's use. For now, send your comments to sanskrit@cheerful.com

  5. Encode Upanishads

    Many of the upanishhad-s are available on the Sanskrit Documents site at http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/doc_upanishhat.html.
    Thanks to Dr. Sunder Hattangadi for encoding most of them.

    One can help encode the additional upanishads.

  6. Literary Works

    Encode literary works by Kalidasa, Bhavabhuutii, Chanakya etc. writers. Some examples are as follows:

    • Chanakya-s arthashaastra(in Sanskrit) is available and needs proofreading. ( artha.itx | artha.txt | artha.ps )

    • Texts and information on Ayurveda, Chanakya's nItishhastra. and other grantha-s.

    • Panchatantra, kathaasaritasaagar, jaatakakathaa etc in original.

    • In recent past, Pandit Bhatkhande wrote a book on Music, ``shriimallakshyasangiitaM'' completely in Sanskrit, ``under the pseudonym Chatura Pandit, and cited it as a reference in his other writings. Being a work in Sanskrit many people automatically thought that it was an old work, and therefore worthy of the respect owed to canonical works.'' (From his biographical sketch available on net. bhatkhande.tex | bhatkhande.ps. It may be useful to get hold of this book and encode important portions mainly for information.

    • The amarakosha of Amarasinha is available in different formats. Please see the Sanskrit goodies site by Prof. Avinash Sathaye (sohum@ms.uky.edu).

      We need to complete the grouping of the verses with English meaning which will help in learning Sanskrit.

    • Professor Yano (yanom@ksuvx0.kyoto-su.ac.jp) has coordinated encodings of many etexts of dharma-s including manusmriti. The files are available at anonymous ftp site ccftp.kyoto-su.ac.jp at the directory pub/doc/sanskrit/dharmas directly at dharmas and jyotisha gaNita .

  7. Sanskrit Grammar tables

    Prepare comprehensive grammar tables (words and vibhaktii-s). Please see grammarintro.itx | grammarintro.ps and noun.itx | noun.ps files. Most of these files are in preparation. Please point out errors as soon as you notice them.

    A dhaatuukoshha is in preparation and will need some programming and encoding help. Please contact Himanshu Pota pota@adfa.oz.au for more details.

    A list of common errors in transliteration and Sanskrit conjunts, and others should be prepared to assist the newcomers to transliterations and Sanskrit. The work has started with file name as commonerrors.txt.

    A comprehensive list of devanagari conjuncts is available from James E. Agenbroad jage@loc.gov. Please contact Bijoy Misra (bmisra@husc.HARVARD.EDU) for further information.

  8. Sanskrit Learning

    Follow creative/innovative approaches to develop and maintain interest in learning of Sanskrit language. This can include crossword puzzles, riddles, poems, stories, word formatting etc. (Sid Harth bakula@earthlink.net)


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  9. Sanskrit Numbers Database

    Prepare a data base with numbers and corresponding information list -
    Please see the files - numinfo.itx numinfo.ps which carries about eight pages of information. Please add new items such as saptapadi in marriage, dvaadasha jyotirli.nga, aagamaa, etc. The list will grow into a unique data base and many should contribute as soon as they encounter such a shloka or list.

  10. Sanskrit Numbers

    Encode a table of numbers from ekaM through nikharva and more!! For example, is the number 50, pa.nchadasha or pa.nchaashata or ardhashata? Such numbers are available in following files - ITX | PS | XDVNG | PDF.

  11. Sanskrit-English technical Terms

    Sanskrit - English technical/ modern terms Common substitutions for Computer (sa.ngaNakaM) , software, cars/vehicles, clothes, shops, trades, games, food items (chapaati, rice, pizza, doughnut:-) etc.

  12. A list of English words originated in Sanskrit

    Build a comprehensive list of English words originated in Sanskrit. Some of the "loaned" are: karma; guruu; pundita; yoga; raajaa; aarya; svastika; dharma; jungle (from ja.ngala); buddha; nirvaaNa et cetera.

    Others with ancient relation, eiher through Latin or in some cross-culture origin are (territory of etymologists) mind to mana, man to manu, father to pitR^i, mother to maatR^i, brother to bhraatR^i, riti to ritual, ambrosia to amR^ita, three to tri, sept in september to sapta, oct to octa or ashhTa, dec in december deca to dasha, sugar to sharkaraa, medium ro madhyam, and so on.

    See Sanskrit FAQ for details. Contact Prof. Brian Smith at brian.smith@ucr.edu for a latest list.

  13. Religious Shlokas and Meanings

    Encode religious shloka-s with meanings. A large collection exists at here and needs update.

    As the collection is grouped according to deities, someone could write a script to select the shloka-s interactively or by mail. With this utility people can prepare a religious handout remotely, and can use in there local temples or for religious meetings. A list with shloka number, deity, first line of shloka should be circulated for people to choose.

    People will select numbers, email it to central email address with specified options(fonts, columns, title, introduction, footnotes, additional shloka-s etc), his script will catenate those number files to one file, pass it on to ITRANS, and mail a formatted postscript output . This will be an easy method compared to the handouts seen in many places having mis-pronunciations, wrong letters, distorted meanings, poor formatting etc.

    The utility can be enhanced with on-line access and Java scripts.

  14. Non Religious Shlokas/Subhaashhitas

    Encode non-religious shloka-s or subhaashhita-s (Contact (sanskrit at cheerful dot c om)). kuuTashloka-s and yudhishhThira- yaksha conversation, both from Mahabharat, can fall in this category. Some riddles, known as prahelikaa, can be similarly compiled.

    Swami Vivekananda was fluent in Sanskrit. There are few of his letters poems which were written in Sanskrit. The complete works have some of them with translations. These letters could be encoded and circulated for everyone's use. Such correspondence between other Sanskrit scholars will be a valuable addition in this collection.

  15. Religious Stotras

    Encode religious stotra-s. There are quite a few stotra-s already available on the the Sanskrit Documents site.

    Other examples which could be added are stotra-s by Adi Shankaracharya, (a long list of his works is available in the encoding_wishlist) -

  16. Religious shlokas Grouping

    A different grouping of above mentioned shloka-s, ma.ntra-s and Sanskrit texts for practices may be done. The categories could be those useful to chant or meditate during birth, ceremonies, departure (prayaaNa), death(mahaaprayaaNa) etc, What are shaa.ntima.ntra-s? Which shloka-s are important to recite or understand in case of death of a close family member?

  17. Yoga Scriptures

    From Yoga-standpoint, the following texts will be instructional.
    • Patanjali's yoga sutras in Sanskrit (available along with English translation)
    • Hatha yoga Pradpika (transliteration and translation).
    • Dattatreya's Tripura Rahasya,
    • Dattatreya's Avadhuta Gita.
    • Vyasa's commentary and Shankara's vivarana on Patanjali's yoga sutras.

    If at all possible -




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  18. Nyaaya collection

    (Vidyanath Rao vidynath@math.ohio-state.edu) Vidyanath has started collecting several nyaaya-s along with examples and stories. He will need more information on nyaaya-s in the form stories you have read or experienced, and help in converting some of his nyaaya postings into Devanagari printable form.

  19. Gita information

    Prepare a comprehensive site which will link all that is available on the topic of Bhagavadgita. Gita is considered to be useful for learning to read and understand Sanskrit. Gita word dictionary is available as - Text bgwords.txt (~0.2Mb) | Text bgwords.itx (~0.4Mb) | PostScript bgwords2.ps (~0.8Mb) | Text bgwords3.itx (~0.85Mb) | PostScript bgwords3.ps(~0.7Mb).

  20. Information Articles

    Prepare information files (about 10 pages). Available files are on :=

    Need to add information files on Sanskrit (different from sanskrit FAQ), the concept of karma-yoga, varNaashrama, Vivekananda (work is initiated see vivekananda.itx | vivekananda.ps) Ayurveda basics, etc. The files should give a glimpse of biographies or the topics and references for further reading. Lectures on such topics will be useful if the speaker provides it in written format or if they are transcribed.

  21. Mathematics/Technology

    Compile information on mathematics and ancient Technology based on Sanskrit suutra-s. For example, there was a shloka on determination of value of PI (ratio of circumference to the diameter of a circle.) Zero or shuunya is another topic. Importance of the number nine is one more. There are few books written on this topic so watch for copyright issue. An article, `The astronomy of the age of geometric altars,' by Subhash Kak is available at

    Sanskrit is chosen as one of the most flexible but still structured languages for machine language and Artificial Intelligence studies. Prof. Rajeev Sangal,Dept of Computer Sci & Engg, IIT Kanpur, sangal@iitk.ernet.in. "Rajeev Sangal is still on the project and more active. He has brought out a book `Natural Language Processing A Paninian Approach' published by Prentice Hall. Functions for `sandhi viccheda' have been completed as part of an M.Tech project. Now they are on `samaasa vigraha'. Several Sanskrit post graduates are part of the Comp. Science & Engg. faculty. The project has expanded itself to the Comp. Science Dept. in Osmania University, Hydrabad, where it has been heard that better facilities exist for such projects." (from posting by Sourav parit@iitk.ernet.in)

    A discussion by the group (and details) on the topic of technology in ancient India will be very useful. A reference for example is a book called ``vAstu shAstra'' published in India by an Indian scholar(??); (Dhruba Chakravarti dchakrav@cs.com

  22. Astrology

    Astrology related data base. A list of basic information needed for a student of astrology. Varaahamihiraa-s bRihat.hsaMhitaa is available and needs proofreading. paaraashara horaa shaastra(in 97 chapters) is available and needs proofreading. (Both are available in sociology_astrology secion. ).

    A pa.nchaa.nga program written by Prof. Yano is now converted from Turbo-Pascal format to standard C . Now, it can be run on various computer platform. Please install it and check the display and contents and provide suggestions. Thanks to Krishna Padmasola for this conversion. For more information and other details related to Astrology information contact

  23. TITUS Project

    Contribute to TITUS project
    (Jost Gippert gippert@em.uni-frankfurt.d400.de)
    Here is another kind of data base accessible to contributors only. A selective texts are stored or are made available with restriction. A 7bit and a 8bit encoding format is used to store and display the texts. (Not in Devanagari) The site description is German and you will need to contact Jost for explanation.


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  24. Sanskrit Learning

    Preliminary lessons for people even starting with Devanagari letter recognition. Charles Wikner (WIKNER@nacdh4.nac.ac.za) has pioneered this collection by providing a 155 pages postscript file for beginners - Sanskrit Tutorial

    A chart of bold Devanagari characters ( chart.itx | chart.ps | chart.gif ) their `baaraakhaDii' format (ka kaa ki kii .. etc upto GYaH) ( baaraa.itx | baaraa.ps) and a pronunciation table are available ( pronounce.html | pronounce.itx | pronounce.ps) | pronounce.gif). These will also help children who are beginning to learn devanagari. (C.S.Raghavendra csr@wipinfo.soft.net)

  25. Sanskrit in Daily Speech

    Prepare a list of 100 sentences in Sanskrit and their meaning which could be used in daily conversation at home with children, on phone with friends. (Himansu R. Pota - pota@adfa.oz.au). Sanskrit SambhaashhaaNa group has already prepared such books.

  26. Online Sanskrit Tutorial

    Prepare an online Sanskrit tutorial for learning Sanskrit. Some of the texts or projects such as grammar mentioned in this list can be tied together in a systematic manner.
    (Robert Barulich barulich@chelsea.ios.com)

  27. Sanskrit Common Sayings

    Collect details(source and context) and explanations of important common sayings in Sanskrit (briidavaakya?) including mahaavaakya-s. See the project-start vaakyasangraha among Sanskrit documents.

    Examples are:

    vasudhaiva kuTuMbakaM,      durlabhe bhaarate janmaH,
    tat.h tvaM asi,             ahaM brahmaasmi,
    praGYaanaM brahma,          gataM na shochya,
    namaskaar,                  cha.ndramaa manaso jaataa,
    naati charaami (shloka during Vedic marriage ceremony),
    satyaM vada - dharamaM chara, svaadhyaanmaa pramadaH,
    aachaaryaaya priyaM,        prajvaalito GYaanamayaH pradiipaH,
    dharmo rakshati rakshitaH,  atiparichayaat.h avaGYaa,
    satyameva jayate,           piNDe piNDe matirbhinnaH,
    na aatmaa balahiinena labhyaH  (muNDaka upanishhad.h III.iii.4),
    na aatmaa pravachanena labhyaH (muNDaka upanishhad.h III.iii.3),
    tatoha.nsaH prachodayaat.h     (Ramakrishna mission),
    ekaM sat.h vipraaH bahuDhaa vadanti,
    ahi.nsaa paramo dharamaH,
    tamaso maa jyotirgamaya,
    aa no bhadraaH kratavo yantu vishvataaH
    (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Journal) etc.
    

    Many such terms are used in emblems of the institutions in India, resembling the Latin ones in the Western world. A reference to the institutions may be appropriate. These may resonate collection of subhaashhita but will give direct explanation of sayings commonly used in Philosophy encoded in the Sanskrit texts including Upanishhads. The writing could be for a page or two in the form of an essay or pravachana explaining the intricacies of sayings and sighting other texts. The first step is to collect such `revealing' messages, and then a few can start writing on them.

    A following format is suggested: vaakya reference complete shloka word by word meaning overall meaning the context Essay which will include references of other shloka-s, specific comments, some insights, quotes, notes for implementations in daily practice. Additional references Anything else?

  28. Puja-vidhi

    Details on Puja-vidhii. See Bhajans and Puja site This will list shloka-s, reasons for different prayers or aarati-s, times for pujaa-s, pujaa ingredients, types of blessings (e.g. shaa.ntiH-pushhTi-tushhTichaastu, diirghaayushhyamaana astu ), details on sa.ndhyaava.ndanaM, gaayatrii, praaNaayaama, japa, biijaakshara ma.ntra-s, satyanaaraayaNa-puujaa etc.

  29. Sanskrit Email

    Sanskrit in Devanagari display over email, PC/Unix based system.

    Please see Mahesh Velankar's unique approach dishaa for this feature.

  30. Transliteration Schemes

    Make a table of transliteration schemes (ITRANS, Harvard, CSX, 7bit, 8bit, Velthuis-DN , Diacritical marks etc.) This will just list letters and their equivalents in different formats. The list of individual marks are available, but someone needs to put them in a single table.

  31. Sanskrit Books

    Prepare a Sanskrit related list of books, publishers, cost and availability. For bookstores information please see bookstores.html, And for Sanskrit courses and books see the file -
    A file with a preliminary list is under preparation. Please provide information of bookstores you know. bookstores.html,

  32. Sanskrit Magazines

    Subscribe to Sanskrit magazines, books and collect articles about Sanskrit from different magazines in different languages.

    A picturesque magazine Chandamaama printed in many languages was quite popular in India. Unfortunately it was discontinued due to lack of support from readers. Funding such projects can be a beneficial task in longer run. The publisher's address is CHANDAMAAMA PUBLICATIONS, 188, N.S. K. SALAI, VADAPALANI, MADRAS - India 600 026

    Subscribe to Sambhashana Sandesha, a monthly Sanskrit magazine available from Aksharam. It carries book reviews, current topics, short stores, Sanskrit vocabulary, studied articles, and many more entirely in Sanskrit. Their address in India is ``Aksharam'', 8Th Cross, II phase, Girinagar, Bangalore -560085 Ph (80) 6613052 . In US, send a cheque for ???/- as annual subscription payable to IDRF. Memo - "Sambhashana SandeshaH". Mail it to Shivaram Bhat, 20800 Homestead Road, #36H, Cupertino CA - 95014 India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) is a voluntary non-profit organization carrying out social service activities in India. IDRF is assisting Samskrita Bharathi for Sanskrit activities in US.

    If you know any other publications in Sanskrit, please let us know.

    You can also send them as gifts to relatives for nominal cost (much less if they are in India.)



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  33. Sanskrit Songs

    Prepare a Sanskrit songs book. Some of the songs available are vadatu sanskritam, manasaa satataM smaraNiiyaM, ke vayaM, surasa subodha vishwa manodnya, etc.

  34. Sanskrit Teaching Activities

    Support Sanskrit teaching/learning activities in India and outside. A list should be made for all the major places of learning in India (Sanskrit Vidyapith/ Universities) and other Universities and Institutions having a formal teaching of Sanskrit. The support will involve monitory contributions, donations of books and information, participation as volunteers, etc. One can also influence the schools and institutions to continue teaching Sanskrit. (Professors Ashok Aklujkar and Madhav Deshpande have contributed funds to provide as awards to students, their teachers and schools who excel academically in Sanskrit state-wide examination.
    Contact

    It appears (though this may not be right) that in India, non-hindi speaking states have emphasized Sanskrit more. This is a topic of discussion. For your information, all the central schools in India have Sanskrit as a compulsory language, along with English and Hindi.

  35. Sanskrit Documents Preservation

    Preservation of Sanskrit documents and knowledge from scholars.
    There are plenty of Sanskrit scholars in India. But, computerization has not touched them. In many areas of Vedas, there are a handful of scholars left in India and most of them are above 60 yrs age! With them, those branches of Vedas and Shastras will also die, unless we (in general) make some concentrated efforts for preservation (in the line of the great scholar Max-Mueller)! It's an expensive project to record all of them. Unless there is awareness about these, funds can not be raised. Tirupati temple's trust is doing some work in this area.

    Also, there are more than two million Sanskrit manuscripts, unexplored and unpublished all over India. Collecting them and preparing a data base itself is an another project.

    Any help regarding this project, monitory or computer hardware/software related, coordination of various institutes, donating time, providing recording equipments, volunteering etc, will be appreciated.

    Sanskrita Bharati at Bangalore has taken few steps regarding these activities. As you would realize, a single institution cannot really perform this task efficiently without the help from others. Please contact Prasanna G. Basavapatna (prasg@informix.com) for more details and for suggesting some ideas.

    Dr. Ajay Jani of Jiva institute is organizing a large scale operation of obtaining and preserving old Sanskrit texts. Please contact him at info@jiva.ernet.in or reach him at Western Residential, Singleton Hospital, Sketty, Swan Sea, SA28QA, U.K., Tel: 1792-205-666/5484, FAX 1792-285-975/84.

  36. Sanskrit/Devanagari OCR

    Implement OCR capabilities for Devanagari scanning.
    Most of the modern OCR software have the rudimentary ability to ``learn'' letters, and with a bit of experimenting it may be possible to develop a capability to scan a `learned' lettering style into certain transliteration format with 90the realm of a dedicated professional or professional organisation (object recognition, neural network etc. high-tech treatment). Some people will need to explore such possibilities due to tremendous advantages.

  37. Daily Sanskrit News

    Someone can work on getting daily Sanskrit news from All India Radio in New Delhi. It will involve contacting Embassy and the AIR to get the typed text in some format. This will be a very useful addition to people desirous of learning Sanskrit.

  38. Miscellaneous Sanskrit Projects

    Some people who cannot devote time and efforts on certain projects but would like to influence the progress in learning or promoting Sanskrit can do so with monitory contributions. Specifically one can donate funds for following ideas to their own choice of institutions.
    1. Send subscriptions for Sanskrit publication
      saMbhaashhaNa sa.ndeshaH or cha.ndamaamaa
      as a gift to relatives and friends in India and abroad.
    2. Donate set of books to libraries in your hometown and schools.
    3. Send contributions for purchasing a hard drive and internet address to store Sanskrit documents.
    4. Donate to give gifts of Sanskrit books to prospective and bright children.
    5. Donate for the promotion of Vedic literature.
    6. vide donations to get your favorite Sanskrit texts encoded. A needy student can benefit from this effort.
    7. the larger case campaign for creating new professorial positions in the subject of indology and Sanskrit.

  39. Sanskrit Topics

    The topics connected with Sanskrit may get very comprehensive. Here is a list of them which were prepared for the 10th World Sanskrit Conference which will be held on 3-9 January 1997 in Bangalore, India.

      (Dr Shivamurthy Swamiji
      Secretariat,
      Xth World Sanskrit Conference
      Taralabelu Kendra 3rd Main, 2nd Block, RT Nagar
      BANGALORE 560 032 India

    Topics:
        1      Agamas and Tantras
        2      Art, Architecture and Archaeology
        3      Buddhist Studies
        4      Classical Sanskrit Literature
        5      Dharma Shastra and Artha Shastra
        6      Epics and Puranas
        7      Hindu Studies
        8      Jaina Studies
        9      Manuscripts and Historical Resources
       10      Modern Sanskrit Literature
       11      Music and Performing Arts
       12      Philosophies (Darshanas)
       13      Poetics and Aesthetics
       14      Sanskrit and Regional Languages
       15      Sanskrit Scientific Literature
       16      Sanskrit Medical Literature
       17      Sanskrit and the Environment
       18      Sanskrit and Computer
       19      Veda and Vedangas
       20      Vyakarana and Linguistics
    
    

    It depends on what you can do to enhance your and others' knowledge about these subjects. Please get involved in whatever capacity you can.

  40. Your Own Ideas

    Add your own ideas to the list here as possible new projects.




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news groups and lists



Sanskrit Mailing List/Digest

Contact Sai Rama Krishna Susarla at sai@cs.utah.edu OR prasg@informix.com . A summary of details relating to the Sanskrit Digest/Mailing List is available as a Text File. The Sanskrit mailings and digest postings are automated. Please follow the directions give below. The digests are also archived and can obtained by sending a message.

Email sent to sanskrit@cs.utah.edu is automatically posted to sanskrit-digest@cs.utah.edu. To contact the maintainer of the Sanskrit digest, please email sanskrit-digest@cs.utah.edu

SANSKRIT DIGEST LIST COMMANDS:-
Send a message to majordomo@cs.utah.edu as follows:

MESSAGE BODY:                                     PURPOSE:

SUBscribe ..your_email_address.. SUBscribe UNsubscribe UNsubscribe help Get Help index sanskrit-digest Get Archive Index get sanskrit-digest file-name-from-index-command Get File-Name sanskrit-digest@cs.utah.edu Post Contributions

Indology Mailing List

The information on the indology news group is available at https://indology.info/.

Advaita List

The advaita group discusses various aspects of advaita philosophy.

ADVAITA LIST COMMANDS:-
Send a message to listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu as follows:

MESSAGE BODY:                                     PURPOSE:

SUBscribe ..your_email_address.. SUBscribe

There are other philosophical lists like the bhakti and dvaita mailing lists, etc. Some of these may be linked from here :-

        soc.religion.vaishnava
        alt.languages.telugu.literature
        alt.religion.vaishnava
        news:alt.hindu


Usenet

A UseNet newsgroup humanities.language.sanskrit is formed. It can be accessed only for reading with URL


This method can be used to access any usenet newsgoups.

The group addresses only Sanskrit related discussions which include speaking and learning the language, and texts in Sanskrit.

other useful sanskrit sites

These sites already have many Sanskrit/Devanagari documents. A more detailed and varied list is given on the Sanskrit Links page.




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learning sanskrit

Many teachers have said that Sanskrit is not a difficult language. It however needs persistence, prolonged interest, and some motivation to read and understand scriptures such as Upanishhad, Veda, Gita etc. Count the number of years you have spent learning your mother tongue, and English a language for professional communication mainly through different subjects, and Hindi or so. In comparison, see how many hours you devoted in learning and maintaining touch with Sanskrit language. This should prompt one to devote more time, steady and on long term basis to absorb the language. Here are a few of the available sources to learn Sanskrit. Since we do not have luxury of learning directly from a teacher in person, we will have to resort to these means. (Please do not value the dollar amount to compare the contents. It is given only for reference. Most of these teachers are lovers of Sanskrit and have prepared the material to make it available to an `aspirant' at a nominal cost to cover the expenses.) Please look at




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transliteration

It is suggested , for encoding Sanskrit texts, to use one of the ITRANS , CSX (Classical Sanskrit), or Velthuis' TeX based systems. This will allow easy conversion to Devanagari (along with English) printout. If such a scheme is not followed, the manual conversion becomes a time consuming, more than a person would spend learning a scheme for typing the texts. Here is the ITRANS scheme, which is more intuitive pronunciation wise (but not from formal linguistic viewpoint??).

The ITRANS 4.0 transliteration scheme is

a     aa(A) i     ii(I) u     uu(U)
R^i   R^I
e     ai    o     au    aM    aH
L^i   L^I

k     kh    g     gh    N^
ch    chh   j     jh    JN
T     Th    D     Dh    N
t     th    d     dh    n
p     ph    b     bh    m
y     r     l     v     sh    shh   s     h
L(Marathi)
ksh(x) GY(Hindi)

q     K     G     z     f     .D    .Dh
      are the letters
k     kh    g     j     ph    D     Dh
      with nuktaas for Urdu.

.n    anusvaara
M     anusvaara
.a    avagraha
.h    haLa.nta (leg break),
H     visarga
dot   . or a vertical line |
      produce a da.nDa
\.    backslash + dot produces dot (puurNaviraama).
a.c   ardhachandra as in cat.
aa.c  ardhachandra as in talk.

The vowels need to be added after each consonant
unless one wants joDaakshara.

No other letters (upper or lower cases) are allowed.
____________________________________________________

Enclose English text in two sets of ## signs (before and after the text.)
For other examples, see documents on anonymous ftp chandra.astro.indiana.edu
OR contact Avinash Chopde at
avinash@acm.org .

The scheme has its origin with Velthuis' transliteration rules, and has departed to allow basis for pronunciation. Selection of Devanagari, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarathi fonts is an added feature.

There are quite a few schemes developed for various users (and uses), and there is no need to argue merits and demerits of them. One of the objectives will be to have the text printed in Devanagari, by standard affordable means, and still be able to circulate easily, preferably in ascii, or transform in different formats. ITRANS suits that purpose very well.


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final thoughts

Learning Sanskrit to read scriptures is a noble thought, and any start towards this objective is a welcome effort. It may take some time, but the following words may keep us moving..

        _______________________________

        shanaiH panthaa
        shanaiH kanthaa
        shanaiH parvata la.nghanam.h |
        _______________________________

        slowly the path is covered,
        slowly the quilt is built and ..
        slowly the mountain is crossed over.
        _______________________________



Everyone has to cover the path, or climb the mountain by oneself with perhaps some help from others. The start is important! As it is often said, the first step is the most difficult part of the journey.

We would like to `keep our enthusiasm in reasonable manner' while dealing with other subjects and people. Perhaps most of us are amateurs trying to do something with our limited abilities to learn and advance Sanskrit. So far as we maintain the `objective' approach, we can include others in our journey, irrespective of national origin or other considerations.

`Sanskrit' may not be the world's greatest commodity, although it may sound like it by reading this compilation. It is dear to us and we would like to do whatever is within our capacity. The phrase `more you give more you get' - used for many worthy undertakings, applies to this subject also.

Those who are already involved in some form or other know, that whatever we do as far as projects are concerned, is insignificant (`just a drop in the ocean') compared to the momentous tasks people - ancient sages, thinkers, including some notable indologist - have undertaken in the past. We will do our portion of it in the manner suitable to us!

Please volunteer to take part in this effort. One drawback of this list is that there are only a few people who are persuing more than one project on their own. A little help from all of us will ease their efforts significantly.


We thank all the
various contributors
to these projects

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