Egenes Thomas. Introduction to Sanskrit. Part 1

Third Revised Edition. — Motilal Banarsidass, 2003. — 386 pages. — ISBN: 81-208-1140-2.If you're interested in the Sanskrit language, whether for linguistic or philosophical reasons, this is the book you should start with. It introduces the script and the grammar in slow, gentle steps. After about 7 lessons, you ease into the different kinds of external sandhi (sound changes and assimilations from one word to another). By the end of the first volume, you've learned a suprising amount: most of the major declensions, and been introduced to the verb, and the principles of compound formation. Every lesson has plenty of exercises, both English to Sanskrit and vice versa, to test your comprehension and to give you practice. The answers to the exercises are given in the back of the book. Just a great, great introduction to the language. After finishing Book I, you can continue with his Book II, or pick up, with confidence, any of the standard academic introductions - Maurer, Goldman and Sutherland, Deshpande, even (gasp!) Coulson.