Is Sanskrit a difficult language?
Is it possible to learn Sanskrit easily?
Is it possible to speak Sanskrit easily and correctly?
These are few questions we face, when it comes to Sanskrit.
It is a common misunderstanding among us that Sanskrit is a difficult language
to learn. Rather it is one of the easiest and most sweet languages to learn. Like
any other language, it has its set of rules, but at the same time it is very flexible,
which helps it evolve. Given the structure of Sanskrit as a language it is very much
possible to learn it, easily, with little practice. More than half of the words in any
Indian languages can be easily traced back to Sanskrit words with very minor deviations.
One more misunderstanding is that Sanskrit is a language more related to religious activities
than the common people. Whereas for 10,000 years we used Sanskrit as our spoken language. But
in the last few centuries, we have adapted to other more difficult languages and
ignored Sanskrit.
Another misunderstanding is that Sanskrit is a language for a specific group (mostly
Brahmin) of people. Whereas many great works that we have were written by people who were
not necessarily Brahmins. Valmiki, the writer of Raamaayana was a hunter (Vyaadha), before
he became a sage. This one example itself can tell us that Sanskrit is for everybody, not
for a limited few. There are countless such examples signifying that Sanskrit is a language
for everyone.
What is the best way to learn Sanskrit?
The key to learn Sanskrit is, start with simple statements, few simple rules and speak
to practice.
The best way to learn Sanskrit is to speak it. Start with speaking few simple
statements, for present, past and future tenses. This will build the basics. Initial
mistakes will automatically get corrected, after some practice. While learning in this
approach, the associated rules can be easily picked-up. Not too many rules are there
for day-to-day usage. It is not necessary that one knows all the grammar rules to
read, understand or speak Sanskrit. And it is also not necessary that we know all
the rules at all.
In this section we have shown some simple steps to learn Sanskrit. We have also covered
the few basic areas, which are enough to start with.