Sanskrit Poetry Resources

 

Learning Sanskrit

Sanskrit is not easily learned over the Internet, but these sites help: learning negari script, sanskrit, world languages, language links and sanskrit language and literature start page.

The best dictionary is the English-Sanskrit Dictionary by Monier Monier-Williams (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2003). A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary by Charles Wikner is a free guide to getting the best from this bulky and demanding compilation.

Online Sanskrit dictionaries are: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Capeller's Sanskrit Dictionary, Apte Sanskrit Dictionary Search and Gérard Huet's Sanskrit-French dictionary. Others are listed here.

Some basic grammar is needed to use the dictionaries. In increasing difficulty, four books can be recommended:

1. Thomas Egenes, Introduction to Sanskrit, Parts I and II (Point Loma Publications, 1989).

2. Roderick S. Bucknell, Sanskrit Manual: A Quick Reference Guide to the Phonology and Grammar of Classical Sanskrit (Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1994).

3. Arthur A. MacDonell, A Sanskrit Grammar for Students (OUP, 1971)

4. William Dwight Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar (D.K. Publishers, 1875/1924)

Some useful language exchanges: friends abroad, xlingo, mylanguage exchange, polyglot learn language, and lingozone.

Sanskrit Poetry

The essence of love, kama, was consciously studied by Sanskrit poets, but finds different expression in its leading exponents: Bharavi, Bhatti, Kumaradasa, Magha, Dandin, Bhavabhuti, Bilhana, Sriharsa and Jayadeva.

A sound if a little old-fashioned introduction is A. Berriedale Keith, A History of Sanskrit Literature (Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1928/1993).

Other works, dictionaries, etc. can be ordered through abebooks and alibris.

Kalidasa

Anyone taking a degree in Sanskrit will read Kalidasa, and most of the resources in libraries and on the Internet are indeed scholarly. A good place to start is C. Rajan's Kalidasa: The Loom of Time: A Selection of his Plays and Poems (1989), and the bibliography following The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics's section on Indian Poetry. Also useful are sanskrit classical literature, aspects of indian civilisation, vidyakara's collection, love in classical and medieval india, Indian literature, valmikiramayan and study guide to sakuntala.

Guides, texts and translations include:

1. Leonard Nathan, The Transport of Love: Kalidasa's Megadhuta (Berkeley, 1976).
2. McComas Taylor, Kalidasa's Meghaduta or 'The Cloud Messenger' (2001).
http://members.ozemail.com.au/%7Emooncharts/kalidasa/meghaduta.html. Biligual text.
3. C. R. Devadhar, Works of Kalidasa: Vol. 2 (Motilal Banarsidass, 1984).
4. Kalidasa: Meghaduta Based on the edition by M.R. Kale. (Simple transliteration, employing UTF-8 convention).
5. M.R. Kale, The Meghaduta of Kalidasa (Motilal Banarsidass, 1969).
6. E. Hultzsch (Ed.), Kalidasa's Meghaduta: Manuscripts With the Commentary of Vallabhadeva and Provided With a Complete Sanskrit-English Vocabulary. (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1911/1998). Text and glossary but no translation.
7. Kalidasa: Poems: Meghaduta. Transcripts and (free) Titus fonts.
8. Hank Heifetz, The Origin of the Young God: Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava (Univ. California Press, 1985 / Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1990).
9. M.R. Kale, Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa, (Motilal Banarsidas Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2004).
10. Jagadananda Das. Chanting Sanskrit Metres in Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Examples of common metres: also supply a tape recording.
11. Jaffor Ullah and Joanna Kirkpatrick. An Illustrated Meghaduta by Mahakavi Kalidasa. Translation, summary and background information.
12. C. R. Devadhar, Works of Kalidasa (Delhi, 1977).
13. M. R. Kale, The Meghaduta of Kalidasa, (Motilal Banarsidas Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2002).
14. Sanskrit Documents. http://sanskrit.gde.to/ Online listing at the University of Cologne.
15. Poetry Archives: Kalidasa. http://www.poetry-archive.com/k/kalidasa.html. Short list of useful sites.

Bhartrihari

1. Dharanidhar Sahu, Three Shatakas of Bhartrihari, (Penman Publishers, 2004)
2. M.R. Kale, The Niti and Vairagya Shatakas of Bhartrhari (Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2004).

 

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