Step 1: Choose a book

Our library is small but growing. It has simple books about children and families. It has books about Rama, Krishna, and the Buddha. And it has books about grammar, too, if those suit your taste.

What you read is entirely your choice. But if you don't know where to start, books with fewer unique words are usually easier to read.

And if you don't see a book you want to read, let us know. We'll be happy to write a book just for you.

Our best books for complete beginners:

saṃjayo na sukhī (9 unique words)
ayodhyā nagarī (8 unique words)
arjunaḥ kaḥ? (7 unique words)

Do these letters look strange to you? Learn how to pronounce them in just 5 minutes.

Step 2: Click for help

If you don't know what a word means, click on it to find out. The more you click on a word, the more help you'll get.

As you read more and more, you'll find yourself clicking less and less. But a clear translation is always a click away.

saṃskṛtaṃ bhāṣā.
saṃskṛtaṃ sundaram.
saṃskṛtaṃ sundarī bhāṣā.

Click on a word above. Or, change the script:

Step 3: Keep reading

As long as you keep reading things you enjoy and understand, you will acquire Sanskrit naturally and subconsciously — no grammar, drills, exercises, or memorization required.

It sounds too good to be true, but this isn't just wishful thinking. This is the majority finding of more than four decades of second language acquisition research.

Some of our series:

saṃjayalokaḥ (simple village stories)
rāmāyaṇam (stories about Rama)
buddhaḥ (stories about the Buddha)
śikṣā (Sanskrit phonetics)