Studying Sanskrit at the University of Sydney
Dr Mark Allon
Chair, Department of Indian Subcontinental Studies, University of Sydney
Email: mark.allon@sydney.edu.au
The study of the Sanskrit language, the most important classical language of the Indian subcontinent, is the gateway for exploring the various intellectual, religious, literary and artistic traditions ‒ associated especially with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism ‒ that have shaped South Asian civilisation, and which have played a profound role in forming Asia as a whole.
Our Sanskrit minor is designed to foster a sophisticated grasp of developments in religion, literature and philosophy throughout South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan), Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Tibet, as well as an understanding of the broader social and historical contexts in which these developments took place. In conjunction with studying the grammar of the language and learning to read the Devanagari script, you will, starting in first year, be reading such formative Sanskrit texts as the Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, and Bhagavad Gītā. In the course of your studies, you will gain the philological skills required to engage critically with Sanskrit texts and to understand them in their historical and cultural context, acquiring an ability to engage in independent research.
Class sizes for Sanskrit are generally small, allowing students to benefit from close interaction with the academic staff. No other university in NSW teaches classical Indian languages. Further, the cost of studying Sanskrit, as with studying any language at university now, has been cut by about 45 per cent thanks to changes recently introduced by the Federal government, so it is now cheaper than ever to study Sanskrit at university. The Sanskrit minor may also be undertaken through the Diploma of Language Studies by students enrolled in a degree other than the BA at the University of Sydney, or any degree at another University, or those who have completed a prior degree: https://www.sydney.edu.au/courses/courses/uc/diploma-of-language-studies0.html
Classes are offered through HyFlex, being conducted simultaneously on-campus and through online delivery.
We also offer Indian and Buddhist Studies units and first year Tibetan through the Asian Studies program, including
ASNS2626 Religious Traditions of South Asia
ASNS1200 Tibet and Central Asia: Nomads and Myths
ASNS2011 Buddhist Thought and Culture
ASNS2003 Buddhism: Historical Perspectives
ASNS2627 Tantric Buddhism in India and Tibet
For further information, contact Dr Mark Allon: mark.allon@sydney.edu.au
“The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists” (Sir William Jones, Third Anniversary Discourse, Asiatic Society (Calcutta), 2 February 1786)
