The Sanskrit Language: An Introductory Grammar and Reader.

• Author: SALOMON, RICHARD
• Position: Bibliography included - Review

By WALTER HARDING MAURER. Two volumes. Richmond, Surrey: CURZON PRESS, 1995. Pp. [x] + 830. $75.

The author of this book wisely commences by posing the question, "Why ... is it desirable to write yet another textbook to join this long line of predecessors?" (foreword, p. [v]). His answer is that "[t]his grammar offers a completely new approach to the study of Sanskrit" (frontispiece) which is "more in conformity with the needs of the majority of students nowadays, who, through no fault of their own, come to the study of Sanskrit with no knowledge or insufficient knowledge of the categories of grammar" (p. [v]). This problem is all too familiar to teachers of Sanskrit, and their approaches to dealing with it vary. Maurer's main strategy is to provide "an extended explanation of each new matter that is taken up" (ibid.). He is scrupulously careful to take nothing for granted and to explain every point in terms that will be maximally accessible to the linguistically naive student. One helpful strategy he follows is to begin explaining Sanskrit structures and concepts by way of English examples and parallel s, as far as possible; this approach is successfully applied, for instance, to the presentation of nominal compounds in lessons 12 and 13.

Despite its updated presentation, the conceptual framework and terminology is essentially that of traditional Western pedagogy derived from classical studies. Grammatical terminology is primarily based on the Greek and Latin model, rather than adopting Indian terms, as is done in R. Goldman's and S. Sutherland Goldman's Devavanipravesika (3rd ed., Center for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1999), a text which was formulated with similar aims and considerations as Maurer's. Here--as with most of the pedagogical issues discussed in this review--there is something to be said for both choices. The introduction of indigenous terminology is theoretically more appropriate and is ultimately beneficial for those who will go on to advanced work in Sanskrit, but it is intimidating and confusing for many students. The traditional Western terminology is not always ideal for the description of Sanskrit grammar, but has the considerable practical benefit of being at least vaguely familiar to student s, or failing that, at least slightly more accessible to them.

Maurer's text is thus essentially a modernized version of the pedagogy of the Whitney-Lanman tradition of North American Sanskrit...