Learning Sanskrit?

[Aupmanyav]

Seems I did not get your meaning. Do you mean this: The Bhagavad Gita

 

[Liu]

Seems I did not get your meaning. Do you mean this: The Bhagavad Gita

Yes.

There it says "by the epic and classical period this pitch accent was lost and replaced by a stress accent that resembles the stress accent in Latin".
And the issue is that I have read and heard that this claim would be wrong.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Yes. There it says "by the epic and classical period this pitch accent was lost and replaced by a stress accent that resembles the stress accent in Latin".
And the issue is that I have read and heard that this claim would be wrong.

Of course, the authority will be someone who has learned the Vedas (for his 'shakha', lineage, which may differ from other 'shakhas', lineages). Not easy.

Yes, this does not hold true for Vedas. But as I said in my earlier post, only who have learnt the Vedas in the traditional way, according to the various ways of recitation, will know that. The full course is said to require 24 years of study. There may be priests in temples who may know this. Check at the nearest Hindu temple around your place. Videos of Vedic chants are available on internet and in the market. Perhaps they could help.

Vedic chant - Wikipedia
Vedic chant - Wikipedia

"These extraordinary retention techniques guaranteed the most perfect canon not just in terms of unaltered word order but also in terms of sound. That these methods have been effective, is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the Ṛgveda (ca. 1500 BCE)."

My personal view is that 1,500 BC indicates the modern period of Vedas, the ancient period goes back to at least 6,000 BC.

 

[Liu]

So you recommend starting to learn Vedic Sanskrit instead of Classic Sanskrit? There are much fewer textbooks on that, but since it is easier by not using as much sandhi I had been thinking about focusing on that first to get a better grasp of the language.
But what I heard about the way Sanskrit is taught traditionally, i.e. first learning the whole texts by heart and only years later learning what the words mean, sounds really not like what I wanna do.

The nearest Hindu temples here are over 1 hour away, and I strongly doubt that they have any teaching facilities, let alone for people from outside. I visited one of them a while ago, and one of the issues is that the people of the congregation there don't even speak much German, but know only Tamil - how can I expect them to be able to teach me Sanskrit then?

But to come back to my question - you don't seem to know what kind of accentuation is normally used nowadays by people fluent in Sanskrit? The Vedic, or the rule-based stress accentuation which Jainarayan mentioned, or another one?

 

[Aupmanyav]

Not always necessary to do what is traditional. Depends on what we want to achieve. I want to understand meaning of Vedas and other scriptures. Translations do that just fine. I am not into chanting of mantras, so pronunciation is not that important for me. I know only the Latin-kind of pronunciation, what the letters indicate - with just one exception - 'havisha' (oblation), one priest told me that trqditionally it was to be pronounced as 'havikha'. I am referring to the Hiranyagarbha Sutra or Ka (Kasmai devāya havishā vidhema). The Rig Veda in Sanskrit: Rig Veda Book 10: Hymn 121

Perhaps you can talk to the priest there on phone and let us see how it develops. At least you can ask questions if they would know the answers. I hope some members who know Sanskrit better than me will respond. @Tattvaprahva , @sayak83 , @Chakra , anyone.

Google
Google
http://www.svbf.org/journal/vol1no2/chanting.pdf

 

[Liu]

Not always necessary to do what is traditional. Depends on what we want to achieve. I want to understand meaning of Vedas and other scriptures. Translations do that just fine. I am not into chanting of mantras, so pronunciation is not that important for me. I know only the Latin-kind of pronunciation, what the letters indicate - with just one exception - 'havisha' (oblation), one priest told me that trqditionally it was to be pronounced as 'havikha'. I am referring to the Hiranyagarbha Sutra or Ka (Kasmai devāya havishā vidhema). The Rig Veda in Sanskrit: Rig Veda Book 10: Hymn 121

Perhaps you can talk to the priest there on phone and let us see how it develops. At least you can ask questions if they would know the answers. I hope some members who know Sanskrit better than me will respond. @Tattvaprahva , @sayak83 , @Chakra , anyone.

I might write an email or something and ask, but I really don't have a good feeling about it - I wouldn't go to a Christian priest when I have a specific question about Latin, nor to a Jewish one when I have a specific question about Hebrew - why should I expect a Hindu priest to have expert knowledge on Sanskrit then?
Even if they can tell me how they recite it, it seems much more reliable to look at a dozen of YT vids in Sanskrit by different people and figure out which accent system is used there, than going for the opinion of a single person.
I guess I should have done so right at the beginning, but when I asked here my question wasn't yet really clear to myself.

Nevertheless, I strongly appreciate any further info that you all can give me on it.

And my question whether you know any good audio courses or recommendable study material in general is still open.

http://www.svbf.org/journal/vol1no2/chanting.pdf

Thanks. Now that is about the Vedic accentuation, so it seems like it is used as well and has not been replaced by the stress-based one entirely.

 

[Aupmanyav]

why should I expect a Hindu priest to have expert knowledge on Sanskrit then?

They are trained for it since childhood, though not all become great scholars. More so it they are from Odisha, Tamilnadu, etc. Traditionalism is stronger south of Vindhya mountains. A Hindu priest would IMHO not mind replying to your mail or answering you if you call when he is free. The 'havikha' thing that I mentioned was told to me by an Odiya priest in Delhi who had come to our place for a ritual.

 

[Aupmanyav]

1. I gave you a link for a google group about Vedic pronunciation. I suppose that is the best bet.
2. Your language is German. There have been a whole lot of German Indologists who have done excellent work on Vedas. Let me take the opportunity to pay my homage to them. I am sure that you can find material on your interest in German.
Indology - Wikipedia