SKT 201 | Intermediate Sanskrit I: The Bhagavadgītā

Next term: September 2025

Course Description

This course builds on our foundational Elementary Sanskrit program and provides students the opportunity to reinforce the principles of Sanskrit grammar, build vocabulary, and gain more confidence through reading original Sanskrit texts. 

In our Elementary Sanskrit classes, we got to know most Sanskrit noun and verb forms and some rules of Sanskrit syntax. We often have a general familiarity with them—but they haven’t settled in our brains yet. The best way to help with that settling is to read lots of actual Sanskrit and thus to constantly remind ourselves of the things we know (or once knew and have forgotten in the meantime, because we are human and Sanskrit is hard).

The second thing we need to be able to read Sanskrit is a larger vocabulary. Introductory Sanskrit classes often keep low the amount of vocabulary you are required to learn, because just making you memorize all those noun and verb forms is more than enough. And so you will now be provided with a list of frequent words, we will talk about vocab learning strategies in our first class, you will get online flash cards for all the words, and will be offered regular quizzes to test your progress.

Of course, in SKT 201 we are not just reading any text, but the Bhagavadgītā, the "Song of the Lord" itself. Countless have read it before us, countless have been inspired by it, and the text has been interpreted it in a wide variety of ways. Our aim in this course will be to remain fairly literal and to see what the text says—what we can translate—where it remains ambiguous, and how that ambiguity comes about. That way, every course participant will have a basis for their own informed view of the text.

This year, SKT 201 will include a close reading of Chapter 2, after a brief reading of a few relevant verses from Chapter 1. Time permitting, we will also revisit the Sāṅkhya-Yoga passages of Chapters 4-6.

For all our readings, we will be using the instructor’s Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit reader, which provides copious grammar and vocab notes on every passage. We will read passages not covered in last year’s SKT 201 last year, so that anyone who wishes to rejoin will be most welcome!