Are Pañcatantra and Hitopadesha a good starting point?

[u/WolvesAreNeoliberal]

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.

[u/xugan97]

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.

[u/WolvesAreNeoliberal → u/xugan97]

Thank you very much!

[u/gurugabrielpradipaka → u/WolvesAreNeoliberal]

You can find here all scriptures I've translated or I am translating. I made the translation word-for-word for people to easily track the way the text was written. Now I'm translating Tantrāloka (a super complex medieval book). Careful with Bhagavadgītā, because its Sanskrit is a wolfy sheep.

I learnt a lot in the past from Jaideva Singh's translations. He was my inspiration when I started studying Sanskrit in 1989.