Sanskrit Language in this Course
While this course is conducted in English, our subject is an ancient Sanskrit Jyotiṣa text. We will be reading the original śloka verses and translations, introducing many Sanskrit words in the process. There is no prerequisite or expectation of previous studies of Sanskrit language or grammar, and we will provide resources to aid in your learning specialized Jyotiṣa terminology. Any questions about the language and translations are most welcome in our course discussion forum.
Transcription System
Like all other human languages, Sanskrit was originally only spoken, and writing systems were developed later on. The devanāgarī script is the most common way that Sanskrit is written in current times, but many other writing systems can be used. Here in this course we will primarily be using the Latin characters you are reading now in a way that can accommodate all of the subtleties in spelling Sanskrit words accurately. This system is called IAST, and is an international standard way to transcribe Sanskrit words. There are many resources on the web describing how this system works. This would be a good place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration.
It would be very useful to familiarize yourself with basic principles of Sanskrit pronunciation, as well as to develop a basic understanding of the various sounds and structure.
BPHS Text
All of the chapters that we are studying in PJC 1 are available in the original Sanskrit for your reference here: https://uspjc.com/category/misc/resources/bphs-text/.
If you prefer to read the verses in Devanagari, Oddiya, Bengali or another script, you can copy and convert any text easily with a web application called Aksharamukha: http://aksharamukha.appspot.com/converter.
Sanskrit Dictionaries
Here are some online Sanskrit dictionaries that you can work with. It can take some practice working with the input methods, but these can be very useful in your studies. Be aware that none of the published Sanskrit to English dictionaries specialize in Jyotiṣa or Āyurveda, so some terms may not be defined so precisely.
