prārambhikaṁ saṁskr̥tam

First-Year Sanskrit

pāṭhyakramaḥ

Syllabus
Instructor

Andrew Ollett (firstname dot lastname at gmail dot com)

TA

Eduardo Acosta (eacosta at uchicago dot edu)

Meeting time

MWF 10:30–11:20 (Foster 209)

Office Hours

MWF 11:30–12:30 (Foster 410)

Grading
Homework and quizzes 30%
Discussion and participation 30%
Final assessment 40%
Policies

Absences. Since this course is based on in-class participation and discussion, it is important that you attend each session. Please let me know in advance if you need to miss class. Each absence will impact the participation portion of your final grade, although absences can be made up with a short written assignment, the nature of which will depend on the class you have missed.

Academic Integrity. The College’s statement on academic integrity defines plagiarism as “[submitting] the statements or ideas or work of others as one’s own,” and makes clear that the penalties for plagiarism “may range up to permanent expulsion from the University of Chicago.” If you are concerned as to what precisely constitutes plagiarism, see the University of Chicago Student Manual’s guidelines on honesty, and if you have any further concerns, please ask me.

Accommodations. If you have specific physical, psychiatric or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know early in the quarter so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will also need to meet with the Office of Student Disability Services located at 5501 S. Ellis Avenue.

Use of Technology in the Classroom. You can use your computers, phones, or tablets to access course resources in class, use dictionaries, consult your notes, etc., as long as it is not a distraction to you or others. “If you aren’t using it to perform a task specifically related to what we are doing in class at that very moment, put it away.”

g
samasyā atitiś ca
kāryakramaḥ
Session and Date Agenda

Week 1
March. 26–30, 2018

Week 1 – March 26–30, 2018

svāgatam!

Welcome back to first-year Sanskrit.

Monday, 3/26:
  • We will go over past active participles and abstract suffixes and develop a plan for the rest of the week.
Wednesday, 3/28:
  • Review: the optative.
  • Reading: Rāmāyaṇam 3.60.10, starting from where we left off last quarter (rāvaṇasya ca tad rūpaṁ).
Friday, 3/30:
  • Review: the future tense (lr̥ṭ)
  • Reading: Rāmāyaṇam 3.60.11–14 (kiṁ nu lakṣmaṇa vakṣyāmi etc.).
  • To study for Monday’s quiz, here is a practice quiz with solutions. I will give you the class and meaning of all of the verbs, as well as whether they are parasmaipadam or ātmanēpadam, as well as whether they are sēṭ or aniṭ if it is relevant.

Topics for this week:

Abstract suffixes
KtavatU
The Optative (liṅ)
The Future (lr̥ṭ)
Reading
Rāmāyaṇam

There will be a quiz on Monday covering these topics!

Week 2
April 2–6, 2018

Week 2 – April 2–6, 2018

Monday, 3/26:
  • Quiz on last week’s topic: the optative and the future, as well as abstract nouns and the past active participle (KtavatU).
  • Lesson: numbers.
Wednesday, 3/28:
  • Review: the perfect.
  • Reading: Rāmāyaṇam 3.60, starting from where we left off last week.
Friday, 3/30:

Eduardo will teach today’s class.

Topics for this week:

The Perfect (liṭ)

Exercises:

Flashcards:

bhū as budh vac kr̥ vidvas-
Numbers
Reading
Rāmāyaṇam

There will be a quiz on Monday covering these topics!

Week 3
April 9–13, 2018

Week 3 – April 9–13, 2018

Monday, 4/9:
  • Quiz on last week’s topic: the perfect and numbers.
Wednesday, 4/11:
  • Review: upapadatatpuruṣaḥ
Friday, 4/13:

Topics for this week:

Governing Compounds (upapadatatpuruṣaḥ)

Exercises:

Class 3 Verbs (hvādiḥ)

There will be a quiz on Monday covering these topics!

Week 4
April 16–20, 2018

Week 4 – April 16–20, 2018

Monday, 4/16:
  • Quiz on last week’s topic: class three verbs and upapadatatpuruṣa compounds.
  • Reading: Rāmāyaṇam
Wednesday, 4/18:
  • Review: the aorist.
  • Reading: we will have a quick look at a sentence or two from a philosophical text, Śālikanātha’s Vākyārthamātr̥kā.
Friday, 4/20:
  • Review: We will continue to review the aorist, including going over the homework (part 1 and part 2) that is due today.
  • For the Quiz on Monday: Here is a practice quiz [solutions].

Topics for this week:

Vocabulary
Vālmīkīyapañcaviṁśatiḥ

This is a list of the 25 most frequent verbal roots in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇam, with what information I could gather about their aorist stems. (Verbs that don’t have aorist stems, like as, arh, and brū, have been omitted.)

Various Nominal Declensions

Flashcards:

prāñc- pratyañc-

There will be a quiz on Monday covering these topics!

Week 5
April 23–27, 2018

Week 5 – April 23–27, 2018

Monday, 4/23:
  • Quiz on last week’s topic: the aorist (see the practice quiz and solutions).
  • We will go over the comparison of adjectives. I will also give you a handout on the desiderative that you will use to do your homework. We will go over the desiderative in more detail on Wednesday.
  • Homework: produce the first person singular desiderative forms of all of the verbal roots in the Vālmīkīyapañcaviṁśatiḥ vocabulary list.
Wednesday, 4/25:
  • Review: the desiderative, including the homework due today.
  • We will also practice sentences that use comparative forms of adjectives.
  • Homework: to be determined.
Friday, 4/27:
  • Eduardo will teach this class.
  • Reading: Rāmāyaṇam
  • For the quiz on Monday, please see the practice quiz. Note that I have given you ten Sanskrit-to-English questions and ten English-to-Sanskrit questions. I will ask you to do two of the former and one of the latter on the quiz. The questions will come from this practice quiz!
  • Begin preparing the readings that were handed out on Wednesday: the Śākuntalam and the Raghuvaṁśaḥ. You have about 2 weeks to work through these texts in your groups; we will start reviewing them in week 8.

Topics for this week:

The Desiderative (san)
Comparison of Adjectives

Reading: adhyayanavidhi

The paradigm of śrēyas- is given under s-stem nominals in adhyayanavidhi.

Flashcards: śrēyas- ‘better’

Note that the flashcards for prāñc- and pratyañc- from last week will be useful since these kinds of words are on this week’s vocabulary list. Their paradigms are explained under stems ending in palatal consonants in the textbook.

Vocabulary

Week 5 (Nominals)

Vālmīkīyapañcaviṁśatiḥ

This is a list of the 25 most frequent verbal roots in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇam, with what information I could gather about their aorist stems. (Verbs that don’t have aorist stems, like as, arh, and brū, have been omitted.)

There will be a quiz on Monday covering these topics!

Week 8
May 14–18, 2018

Week 8 – May 14–18, 2018

Monday, 5/14:
  • Review: On the model of last week’s grammar session (see the handout on ya) we will continue consolidating our knowledge around particularly ambiguous words and morphemes. Today, we will focus on ta.
  • Nominal stems ending in diphthongs. See the handout I will distribute in class today.
  • The denominative: See the notes in adhyayanavidhi. I have put up two verses on the readings page which feature denominative verbs: Hitōpadēśaḥ 1.70 and Vairāgyaśatakam 8.
  • Homework: Those of you who are presenting on Wednesday do not have any extra homework. Please look at the presentation guidelines. The rest of you should translate both of the two verses mentioned above and give me your translations on Wednesday. (If Wednesday’s presenters also want to turn in translations for me to look at, you are welcome to, but not required to.)
Wednesday, 5/16:
  • Reading: Either Śākuntalam or Raghuvaṁśaḥ.
Friday, 5/18:
  • Reading: Either Śākuntalam or Raghuvaṁśaḥ.

Topics for this week:

The Denominative (KyaṄ)
Diphthong-stem Nominals

handout; flashcards: gō-

Review (punarīkṣaṇam)
  • what is that morpheme? ya
  • what is that morpheme? ta
  • Kālidāsa Readings

    See also the presentation guidelines.

    Vocabulary
    Vālmīkīyapañcāśat

    This is a list of the 50 most frequent verbal roots in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇam. All of these verbs should be memorized.

    Week 9
    May 21–25, 2018

    Week 9 – May 21–25, 2018

    Monday, 5/21:
    Wednesday, 5/23:
    • Reading: Śākuntalam.
    Friday, 5/25:
    • Reading: Śākuntalam.

    Topics for this week:

    Additional nominal stems
    Kālidāsa Readings

    See also the presentation guidelines.

    Vocabulary
    Vālmīkīyapañcāśat

    This is a list of the 50 most frequent verbal roots in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇam. All of these verbs should be memorized.

    Week 10
    Final Exam

    Week 10 – Final Exam

    Date
    • The canonical time for the final exam will be Tuesday, June 5, at 10:30 in Foster 209.
    • It will also be possible to take the exam early, on Wednesday, May 30, between 11:30 and 12:30.
    Format
    • The exam will consist of two parts.
    • In the first part (40 points), you will be asked to provide particular nominal and verbal forms, given either a nominal stem (prātipadikam) or a verbal root (dhātuḥ). You will have to answer four out of six questions.
    • In the second part (60 points), you will be asked to translate a verse (30 points) and identify three forms in the verse (30 points). You will have to choose one verse out of three.
    • You can memorize a verse for extra credit (10 points), but the verse should not be one that appears on the exam. I recommend memorizing one of the verses from the Raghuvaṁśaḥ or Abhijñānaśakuntalam.
    • There is a practice exam available here [solutions here].
    Coverage
    • The exam will cover all of the grammar that we have discussed in the course, with a special emphasis on this quarter’s topics: the optative (liṅ), the future (lr̥ṭ), the perfect (liṭ), and the aorist (luṅ); class three verbs (hvādiḥ); upapadatatpuruṣa compounds; avyayībhāva compounds; and dvandva compounds.
    • The verses that I will ask you to translate and answer grammatical questions about will be drawn from the readings we’ve done this quarter. They are listed below.
    Review (punarīkṣaṇam)
    Vocabulary
    Vālmīkīyapañcāśat

    This is a list of the 50 most frequent verbal roots in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇam. All of these verbs should be memorized.

    upāyāntarāṇi

    Other Resources

    For each category, I have ordered the list according to what I think will be most useful ot beginning students, although the judgement is of course subjective and, in some cases, arbitrary.

    Grammars (and General Information)

    Textbooks

    Dictionaries

    Many dictionaries are now available online from a number of sources, including the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia at the University of Chicago, and the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries at the University of Cologne. The best way to access these dictionaries, in my opinion, is through the open-source program Goldendict (formerly Stardict), and detailed instructions for setting up these dictionaries are provided by Guy Leavitt.

    The Sanskrit Library has a multi-dictionary search, but the dictionaries need to be selected by changing one’s preferences.

    Readers and Manuals

    Web Resources