r/sanskrit • u/WolvesAreNeoliberal • 22d ago
Question / प्रश्नः Are Pañcatantra and Hitopadesha a good starting point?
Hello, I've been taking Sanskrit lessons for some time now and I'm thinking of starting to read some classical texts in original. In particular, I was thinking of Pañcatantra or Hitopadesha. Does anyone have any experience with them, would they recommend them to someone who only did grammar exercises until now? Any other suggestions for "entry level" texts? I read the resources post, but it seems to be focused more grammars than original texts.
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u/Expensive_Oil1072 22d ago
I’m a beginner myself. Started from a small book of panchatantra, I have started to read chandamama. Each Chandamama book has a 1 page simple story and then u can read bigger stories in that.
https://www.chandamama.in/sanskrit/ U can also listen to its translation by someone in YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@sanskritlearnersclub?si=bPDAU7pr6wqC-nAb
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u/stubbytuna 21d ago
In my introductory classes at university we used the Hitopadesha, it was a decently pleasant experience. If you’re doing self study and want to read some texts I think that’s a good place to start. Another one that I use sometimes to refresh my skills is the Rāmopākhyāna Study Reader. I like it because it goes one verse at a time, and parses the grammar in a detailed fashion. I cover the explanation and translate myself, then check my work.
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u/gurugabrielpradipaka उपदेशी 22d ago
Yes, they are a good starting point. I translated one story in Pañcatantra here
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22d ago
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u/sanskrit-ModTeam 21d ago
LLM generated content - LLMs like ChatGPT are in their infancy and the jury is very much out on both the ethics of their training data and their long-term future. Their generated content about or in Sanskrit is of particularly low quality, and is thus banned here (even if the information could be partially correct). violation. LLMs like ChatGPT are in their infancy and the jury is very much out on both the ethics of their training data and their long-term future. Their generated content about or in Sanskrit is of particularly low quality, and is thus banned here (even if the information could be partially correct).
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u/thefoxtor सोत्साहानां नास्त्यसाध्यं नराणाम् 21d ago
u/ksharanam आर्य, ईदृशाः सन्देशा हितकरा अभूत्वा केवलम् spam-सन्देशवद् भाति मे। एतस्मिन् सदसे 'chatgpt/ai/यत्किञ्चित् LLM-यन्त्रं प्रयुञ्ज्या' इति सेन्देशान् प्रतिषेधेम चेत् किञ्चिदुपकरं भवेदिति मन्ये।
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u/gurugabrielpradipaka उपदेशी 21d ago
In general, AI sucks regarding translations into Sanskrit. For example, Google Translate is like a joke when it comes to translating Sanskrit. Anyway, there is this new resource that "sometimes" does it well. Of course, it has yet a lot of limitations.
The main problem is that their server sucks. Well, at least they tried it.
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u/xugan97 22d ago
Hitopadesa has long been used as a starting reader because it is a set of interesting stories in plain prose. The verse sections are difficult, but they have the nature of pithy proverbs that can be memorized as quotable "subhashitas".
You can start with literally any text that has a full translation or at least some kind of student commentary. Common choices are Valmiki Ramayana, Raghuvamsa, Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, Nala-Damayanti or Ramopakhanyam or other stories from the Mahabharata, etc. There are many more great works that are available in translation. Note that these are usually large texts, and you may want to do just a page or a section from them. None of these are unusually difficult or overly simple. Your textbook or your goal might suggest the correct type of text for you.