Authors प्वालः । pvaal

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सूत्रसूत्रम्। Thread of Threads 😁

संस्कृतपठनार्थं कानिचन सूत्राणि अत्र स्थापयामि।

Creating a master thread to help सहृदयाः find relevant Samskrita threads

जयतु संस्कृतम्। जयतु भारतम्।

Starts with the most important thread:

HOW TO START LEARNING SAMSKRITAM ?

#१ How do I start learning Samskritam?


#२ How do I learn Samskritam in my mother tongue? Pradeshika Bhasha options!


#३ Textbooks & sources for learning Samskritam

A comprehensive, downloadable list of all Samskrita text books from Indian School / State boards


#४ Dictionaries, tools & apps for the Samskritam Student
Of Men, Mice & Languages!

Inspired by the thread below, I am pleased to share the fruits of my labour!😀

Presenting my AMT - Aryan Mouse Theory*!

आर्यमिश्रान् विज्ञापयामि अस्मिन् विषये।

While this may seem in jest, the data👇🏼shown is all valid

[*channeling my inner Witzel}


As the screenshot shows, the word for Mouse is remarkably conserved across multiple languages

German - Maus
Dutch - Muis
Swedish - Musen
Russian - myš’
Czech - Myš
Polish - Mysz
Bulgarian - miškata
Slovenian - Miška

Samskritam मूषिकः । Mushika | Mushaka


Here is a list of 70+ languages with the word for ‘Mouse’

In fact, total list may be 100+ languages!

Quite remarkable!

But why?

Mice & humans in fact, go a long way back

The history of origin & spread of Mouse is an important clue to the spread of human beings & languages


१ Mice originated in India & SEA

२ 10,000 years ago had split to 4 populations with non-overlapping range in India

३ Mouse started commensalism only after agricultural communities started

४ domesticus spread to fertile crescent

५ musculus spread to China

६ 4000 BP ->Europe


This is the map highlighting the spread of mice
संस्कृतम् - Dead or Alive?

Came across a discussion on BVP that linked to a few leading western Indologists opining on the Sanskrit Revival movement & the spoken Sanskrit movement

https://t.co/KXFQU9exUx

Quite instructive!


The starting point - the famous chai video of Pollock (Padma Shri 2010)

Efforts to revive or ‘speak’ संस्कृतम् as exemplified by unwashed Hindoos trying to order चायपानीयम् in Sanscreet memorably filled Prof. Pollock with ‘nwosayae’ 😀


The evocatively titled Death of Sanskrit by Sheldon Pollock had crystallized the Indological view that Sanskrit is dead & its best left dead!

He also shared a horror of Hindoos, ‘Inheritors of a past that they did not create themselves’ actually daring to bring it back to life


Now most संस्कृतम् learners will find it most perplexing !

Why should an Indologist, a lifelong Sanskritist have such a horror of संस्कृतम् springing back to life?

किमर्थं भोः?

To help संस्कृतानुरागिनः understand their PoV, an instructive thread is attached

Prof. Stella Sandahl, an Emeritus Professor at Dept. of East Asian Studies has this opening remark

‘How can we rescue Sanskrit from these vandals’?

She claims that speaking Sanskrit is correlated with demolishing temples & violating nuns!

This is a Professor & a Sanskritist!