Sanskrit Studies
Links and Information

Read Marathi Books Online at rasik.com. At present there are sa.nkShipta gurucharitra in 50+ pages, sAnegurujI.nchyA goShTI, shUnya nahAbhArat, amerikA pravAsa, mulA.nchI gANI, and a few more short booklets as an advertisements of the books by the authors and others. The site has nunmber of Marathi books and audio cassettes/CDs on sale. A unique feature is that one can rent Marathi books online.

Digital Dictionaries of South Asia of University of Chicago has links and searchable contents of following languages: Baluchi, Khowar, Persian, Torwali, Bengali, Marathi, Rajasthani, Urdu, Nepali, Sanskrit, Comparative, Hindi, Pali, Tamil, Kashmiri, Pashto, Telugu et cetera. Many more are forthcoming. These dictionaries are entered by contractors and the work to create searchable database is ongoing. The project is funded by the "International Research and Studies Program within the Office of International Education and Graduate Programs at the US Department of Education. The online versions of the four Sanskrit dictionaries were created for the DDSA as a project of the former Dharam Hinduja Indic Research Center of Columbia University under the generous sponsorship of the Hinduja Foundation. "

Advaita.org.uk - The Spiritual Path of Advaita is developed by Dennis Waite to promote the teaching of Vedanta towards self realization. The site is divided in five sections: Essays & Discourses sorted by topic and author, Resources including Teachers & Books, Reading recommendations, Links to best sites, and Introduction to Sanskrit. Recently Dennis has published a book entitled "An Essential Guide to Sanskrit." The book was published by Black & White books, a division of Sundeep Prakashan, in Jan 2005 and is available at reasonable price. Dennis, himself being a long-term student of Advaita and Sanskrit, has compiled the "Essentials" from a student's standpoint, providing practical guidelines and details using Itrans scheme.

Sanskrit language text books and learning material are listed at realization.org with commentary on each. It was compiled originally at Columbia University. Of course, the google or amazon.com search will lead to plenty of useful books for learning Sanskrit. The willingness as well as initiative in learning is essential than acquiring such books.

For a list of bookstores that can provide Sanskrit and Indological study books, refer to sites 1, 2, and 3.

Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth: "Shri Balmukund Lohiya Center of Sanskrit and Asian Studies," provides a higher education in Sanskrit, Indology, and certificate courses in Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, andJapanese. It also promotes high level research through doctoral thesis in Sanskrit and Indology.

The importance of Sanskrit to Hinduism, an article at sanskrit.org.

Stress on Sanskrit learning, a news item reporting a commendable effort by Madhya Pradesh Government in making special efforts to give impetus to Sanskrit learning, Sanskrit "Pathshala" (school) Modernisation Scheme.

Explore a new Devanagari scripting tool at http://sarasvati.sourceforge.net written by Stefan Webb. It works with Windows XP and 2000. The site is equipped with screenshots and manuals.

Also try out http://www.aksharamala.com, Itrans online interface, Sanskrit bhaarat, and Itranslator.

Shrii vaidyanaatha diixitiiya smRtimuktAphalam includes texts varNaashrama dharma kaaNDam (30 MB), aanhika kaaNDam (43 MB), aashoucha kaaNDam (10 MB), kaala kaaNDam (2 MB). The files are contributed by Sri Ajit Krishnan of http://www.mudgala.com/. They are all in devanaagari script only. Please keep this in mind before downloading as the file sizes are large. If you are interested in transliterating this document into ITRANS for easy search or dedtail study, please let ravi @ ambaa . org know.

Hindu Dharma is a full online text of a book published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It "contains English translation of two volumes of the Tamil Book "Deivatthin Kural"; which is a collection of invaluable and engrossing speeches of Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi." The book has comprehensive information in 22 classified parts with 250 chapters.

Yoga Classics includes several texts on Hatha and Raja Yoga.

Muktabodha Indological Research Institute has excellent digital library with texts such Samvit-Prakasa by Vamanadatta Edited with an English Introduction by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski and many documents in Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies. "Muktabodha is working in collaboration with libraries and institutions around India to make digital images of specific rare manuscripts and texts held in their collections. The plan includes publication projects: A series of translations of texts of Kashmir ShaivismA series on Hindu iconography and architecture, A series from the Shaiva Siddhanta school of South India, A series of studies of Vedic texts, in particular of the Shrauta tradition."

BANGLAPEDIA: Sanskrit, a long article about Sanskrit literature and literary figures. The banglapedia is built by contributions by various professors and professionals , mostly from Bangla Desh, and elsewhere. It has comprehensive set of articles. The project and site are supported by Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

For the love of Sanskrit, an inspirational news article by Shobha Warrier, The Rediff Special, September 13, 2004, on the life and dedication of O R Rajagopalacharya (84) and N Srinivasacharya (101) at Mambalam Samskruta Vidyalaya. "Only after learning Sanskrit did I come to know that there is a treasure house waiting to be explored," says Rajagopalacharya's student. He himself concludes that "Teaching is the only tonic I take."

The 4to40 is an interesting award winning site that "recognises that education has a higher goal - of helping our children become better human beings. Intelligent and sensitive to their immediate social - political - cultural - ecological surroundings." It is developed by Amarjeet Malik, involved in an offshore software development and web designers firm, based in New Delhi, India and New Jersey, US. There are separate sections involving Story, Katha, Poems, illustrated Folktales including translations from Sanskrit literature, Earth, Discover India, Festivals, Parenting, Legends, well prsented first chapter of Bhagavad Gita.

An article by Choodie Shivaram entitled Enchanting Sanskrit in the Heritage section of Hinduism Today, July/August/September 2003. "Scholars, priests, villages, young and old are part of an all-India movement to revive our sacred language" describing the efforts by Samskrita Bharathi.

Profile : Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan Publisher of rare sanskrit books, at very cheap prices!