Preface

The key to the successful study of Sanskrit lies in knowing where to look things up, in dictionaries, grammars and tables of paradigms. First as a student, and later as a teacher, I used the grammatical tables in the texts written by Macdonell, Coulson, Bucknell and Egenes. Each of these has its strengths, yet none is particularly well suited to the needs of the beginning student. To meet this need, I have compiled from the above sources all the most common and useful paradigms that a student is likely to encounter in the first few years of study. I have attempted to present the information clearly and unambiguously, concentrating on common forms, and omitting rarely encountered ones. While acknowledging my great debt to all my kind teachers, I dedicate this slim volume to my dear students.