Forlaget Univers

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Forfatter

Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen

Beskrivelse

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This new introduction to Sanskrit is the first of its kind in Scandinavia since the small grammar with a reader written in 1846 by the Danish professor of Sanskrit N.L. Westergaard. Westergaards booklet is now very much outdated although it was a small masterpiece of its time. For this reason the new introduction to classical Sanskrit has been called a landmark publication in Scandinavian Indology by Prof. Gavin Flood, who is one of the worlds foremost scholars on Hinduism and
Comparative religion at the University of Oxford.
The book - Language of the Gods. Classical Sanskrit in Danish is an outcome of my teaching activity as a teacher in Sanskrit, Pāli and Indian religions at the Section for the Study of Religion, Aarhus University, since 2005. LG has
been testet in four courses of three semesters each in the period 2005-2012. Furthermore, I have had the priviledge of being able to discuss LG with three colleagues in Denmark, who have used LG or parts of it in their own Sanskrit teaching at Aarhus University and at the University of Southern Denmark. I have also had the priviledge of discussing LG with colleagues at the Oxford Centre for
Hindu Studies and with colleagues (most of them pandits) at the Nepal Research Centre, Kathmandu.
The ambition of Language of the Gods has primarily been to promote the study of Sanskrit and thereby boost the qualified interest in Indian religion and culture in Denmark and Scandinavia. It is an attempt to meet the challenges as formulated by the sanskritist Thomas Egenes in 2008:
Over the past several hundred years, few western scholars have written grammars or introductory textbooks
for Sanskrit. [] a need that still remains, which is to make the introductory study of Sanskrit simple, concise, and systematic, thereby making it more accessible and enjoyable for a beginning student. Beside the problem of using English as a mediating language between Sanskrit and Danish, most
introductions to Sanskrit written in English are written for students of Indology. The student will have to spend one or two years working (full-time) through such an introduction before getting to read a "real" text in Sanskrit. Other students usually do not have the time or the patience for this. In
contrast, LG aims at enabling the student to read a "real" Sanskrit text of real interest as quickly as possible by supplying a detailed glossary and a practical grammar with clear overviews and lucid explanations. The reader includes some of the most significant passages from the Bhagavadgītā and the Chāndogya-Upaniṣad which impresses the student as worth his attention for its own sake.

ISBN

978-87-91668-38-8

Udgivelsesdato

04-03-2014

Sider

357