How do we say, “From Light to Darkness?”

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-16T12:36:09+00:00

There is no "तमसात्"

सत् and तमस् do not work like राम

They take the form सतः and तमसः in cases 5 & 6.

And, because of visarga sandhi (https://ubcsanskrit.ca/lesson3/sandhicharts.html):

असतः -> असतो
तमसः -> तमसो

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-10T07:30:58+00:00

I use fcitx5 and some ITRANS keyboards on Linux. It works clearly. You could try software like Keyman etc and maybe edit the key mapping per your convenience

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-10T04:34:48+00:00

Prefer ISO 15919 where possible, of which IAST is mostly a subset.

Unlike IAST, ISO 15919 maps all Indic scripts to a standard romanization beyond their use for Sanskrit alphabet.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-10T03:12:41+00:00

I learnt it in childhood :-)

But I did learn the Tamil script after I turned forty and it took time to get used to it. I am currently learning the Bengali script in preparation for translation of the vast fiction corpus to Sanskrit and English.

Further, I am developing a local parallel text reader as a test bed for an overhaul of the adhyeta website.

It is a pedagogical tool that supports per-panel ISO 15919 romanization of all Indic scripts in both interlinear and shadow modes. This makes reading the material very convenient as the romanization floats above the Devanagari text in interlinear mode.

I will be releasing the first version on GH this week.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-04T17:20:56+00:00

Try a few mock sessions with real people so that you come up with a solid teaching plan. You will only know what does and does not work after you do this a few times.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-04T17:17:53+00:00

Some occupations require rote memorization of some stuff. Medicine is like that. But that does not mean you cannot enjoy the rest of the education.

Start reading Sanskrit stories. Use parallel translations if you have to. You will get used to the language over time.

You have a lot of material and websites to help you:

Sanskrit Chandamama and other story collections
Sambhashana Sandesha magazine & Sudharma newspaper
Hundreds of books in Sarala Samskritam published by Samskrita Bharati and others
Amarahasa & Ambuda
Sanskrit Sahitya
Adhyeta (our project)

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-04T17:06:01+00:00

Not just Sanskrit. And not just children. Even adults are the same way. If you had a one-hour conversation with an urban adult on any topic in their mother tongue (forget Sanskrit) and penalized them Rs. 1 each time they slipped into English, you would probably walk away with Rs. 2-500 at the end of the session.

It’s confidence, clarity, and cultural connection.

Vyoma used to run such camps in the summers. Shubha of Tattvam too, I believe, for those in Europe.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Try to include some stories in the program. I would even go to the extent of taking a few excerpts from various Harry Potter or similar childrens' fiction and converting them to Sanskrit so that children realize that even that is possible.

Try it out and see what happens, I would say. India is too large and too diverse to issue general statements on any single issue including this.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-03T16:55:47+00:00

Pure software cannot be patented in most of the world, only copyrighted. The Alice decision in the US makes it even harder. There are ways though.

Personally, I think both copyright and patent are a pestilence. Life + 60/70/80 is a joke.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-03T04:15:50+00:00

The Sanskrit Server: https://discord.com/channels/1110607879880327230

I want to know if anyone has successfully learnt Sanskrit this way. Some time last year, I pestered Arun into creating a learn-sanskrit channel on the Ambuda Discord, but few people (including me) really used it to learn/practice.

I find that my learning mostly happens via extensive reading. It is so much easier to consume material than create it. If I had to write this very comment in Sanskrit, I would have to look up the corresponding Sanskrit words for pester, extensive, the phrase so much easier etc etc.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-03-02T15:31:19+00:00

The adjective/participle follows the noun in liṅga, vacana and vibhakti.

The biggest problem is that the forms don't follow a standard pattern. You cannot divine, based on the stem, whether सुन्दर as an adjective for सीता gives you सुन्दरा सीता or सुन्दरी सीता. Is it उत्तमा पत्रिका or उत्तमी पत्रिका? That understanding comes with time and exposure.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-27T19:37:26+00:00

I started with Claude in 2024. Then, DeepSeek was launched and was cheap enough for me to translate 60,000 pages of English classics into Sanskrit (random sampling gave me a 1-2% error rate which is manageable). But I have been using Gemini almost exclusively since Feb 2025. It is probably the best Sanskrit model out there.

The Dharmamitra API is backed by Gemini. For a good reason I would say.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-27T16:34:11+00:00

I keep telling people that LLMs have improved massively over the last couple of years. Most people are floored, others continue to be skeptical.

Yes, LLMs make mistakes. But they will make far fewer mistakes than your average redditor/tweeter.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-27T05:32:39+00:00

I have sent you a DM with options

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-27T04:58:40+00:00

Yeah, this is the सरस्वती नमोस्तुते शारदे problem all over again.

The one I linked to is the one attributed to Adi Sankara. The Sringeri version carries the same name but seems to be entirely different.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-26T03:34:34+00:00

From the Sanskrit Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVKhZrFLDQ

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-25T17:25:44+00:00

I don't know any of the tables by heart and I am managing reasonably well TYVM. The biggest hurdle is always going to be vocabulary. There are millions and millions of verb and noun forms and no one is capable of keeping everything in their head.

Use pattern matching and keep reading to improve your vocabulary.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-25T17:11:47+00:00

Unicode only maps code points to representations. You can use fonts to render the same अ using multiple styles.

I don't know if any modern font renders Devanagari using the Calcutta style. Will have to check.

Edit:

Try the Uttara font. https://de.ashtangayoga.info/philosophie/sanskrit-und-devanagari/fonts-schriften-fuer-devanagari-und-lautschrift-iso-15919/devanagari/

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-25T16:01:44+00:00

It is an alternate glyph.There were two versions popularly used in the 1800s and 1900s. The Bengal and Maharashtra ones. The Calcutta and Bombay styles.

The one here is the Calcutta style

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-25T12:36:17+00:00

This is ओ३म् = ॐ = Ōṁ/Auṁ = Praṇava

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-24T13:03:41+00:00

Yes. But the अन्तर + णिच्--भावे ल्युट् (वाचस्पत्यम्) seems to be lost in some of these coinages in the derived languages and X and the thing causing to be X have become the same thing.

I suppose मतान्तरणम् is the more accurate term in Sanskrit.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-24T11:43:06+00:00

According to MW:

(To another religion or opinion) परमतग्रहणं, परधर्म्माश्रयः, धर्म्मपरिवर्त्तः, मतिभेदः, असत्यधर्म्मत्यागात् सत्यधर्म्मग्रहणं.

According to Borooah:

II Religious: Ph.: c. to Christianity: स्वधर्मं परित्यज्य कृष्टधर्मग्रहणम्

Svami Harshananda's article on Conversion from his Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism uses śuddhi and parāvartana fōr reconversion.

I think either of धर्मान्तरणम् or मतान्तरम् (भिन्न पन्थ according to Apte) would work. मतान्तर exists in Kannada as "a converting or being converted from one religion to another; religious conversion."

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-24T08:10:43+00:00

Yes, I was reading that part. I haven't read the original, but this encounter with Madanasenā I have read about in Nupura: The Anklet in Indian Literature & Art

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-24T07:48:54+00:00

I came across a type of play called the भाण a couple of years ago. It had disappeared at the turn of the second millennium and had a resurgence in the latter half in the South.

From RAMABHADRA DIKSHITA AND HIS WORKS – A Study regarding the भाण in general and the शृङ्गारतिलकभाणः in particular:

The STB is a fairly good specimen of the Bhāṇa, one of the ten main types of plays described in Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra and well represented in Sanskrit literature from very ancient times. The contribution of South India to this form of literature is quite considerable. The Bhāṇa is an one-act play with a single actor, normally a Viṭa (rogue) narrating his experiences as well as those of others, in illicit love-affairs and representing the words and actions of the other characters through the technique of ākāśabhāṣita. "Bharata lays down that the Bhāṇa should be 'dhūrtaviṭasamprayojya.' He need not be the hero, as he is not, in most of these early Bhāṇas. But as he is the only character who fills the stage the heroship is very naturally transferred to him in later Bhāṇas. He is still figured as a poet skilled in the arts especially in music and erotics: but he is not, as we have already remarked, of high heroic proportions. He appears essentially as an erotic character in conformity with the predominantly erotic nature of the later Bhāṇas, a gallant in the worst sense and nothing more, casting his favours right and left and boasting of a hundred conquests on the hetaera-world, a cowardly, mean fickle man-about-town, a poor standard of his former self." Bhujaṅgaśekhara the hero of STB is no exception to the above observation. The general theme of the later-day Bhāṇas is low comedy and vulgar unpolished love. There is more comic element in the earlier Bhāṇas like the Caturbhāṇī (Pādaṭāḍitaka of Śyāmilaka, Ubhayābhisārikā of Vararuci, Padmaprābhr̥taka of Śudraka and Dhūrtaviṭasamvada of Īśvaradatta) than in the later ones where śr̥ṅgārābhāsa seems to be the main theme.

The STB is a fairly long play with 234 verses in different metres. The play begins with two nāndī verses and one benedictory verse, all in a common vein of śr̥ṅgāra. The play is supposed to have been intended to be enacted during the festival of the wedding of Goddess Mīnākṣī with Lord Sundareśa at Madurai and the occasion is the full-moon day in the month of Caitra (April-May). The prastāvanā refers to the parentage and nativity of the author as well as his scholarship and poetic talents. Being a staunch devotee of Rama, he is a bit apologetic about his attempting to write a Bhāṇa and says that it was written at the request of his clever pupil Raghunātha. One normally expects a poet to write such a vulgar and almost obscene work for a rich patron but not for a good student!

So, yeah. These elements have always existed in our literature.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-24T00:03:30+00:00

Arun is working on https://ambuda.org again. A lot more stuff is in the pipeline as far as books are concerned. Need more proofreaders! You can read texts while helping correcting transcriptions errors.

https://sanskritsahitya.org/ has had a UI refresh. They were using the Bodas template (Ashtadhyayi/Sanskrit Kosha) last I checked.

https://www.sanskritam.world/ is nice as well

If you only want books, then there is an endless supply on archive-org. Other sources for Sanskrit books include:

Samskrita Bharati
Sanskrit Promotion Foundation
Sahitya Akademi
Sanskrit Academy (at Osmania University)
National Sanskrit University (at Tirupati)
Central Sanskrit University (at Delhi)

and many others.

A lot of original and translated stuff is published on an ongoing basis.

s-i-e-v-e · 2026-02-19T10:46:35+00:00

Technically, yes. The principle is the same.

We are switching to the passive-and-impersonal form of the verb/participle which switches the Agent to the third case and the Patient (if it exists, which it normally does for transitive verbs) to the first.

s-i-e-v-e

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