Introduction:

‘At the dawn of history India started her unending quest and trackless centuries are filled with her striking and grandeur of success and failures.’ –Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.

The above line proves that the Indian culture and civilization are age-old. The dominating religion in India is Hinduism. And most of the Hindu rituals and religious ceremonies and religious books have Sanskrit as their language. The language is so respectable that it has been made an official language in India. And therefore India is the best place to learn Sanskrit. Now you must be thinking that what is the best place to learn Sanskrit in India?

Before finding the answer to the question let us discuss some features of it.

•  The word Sanskrit itself means adorned or perfect. It is a perfect language that has representation for every sound a human can speak. And therefore it is a complex language to learn.
•  It has 46 different letters that are grouped according to the phonetic properties.
•  The language can be written in any script that has a distinct character for each sound. But, in India Devanagari script, the script for most of the Indian languages, is used. Each character in this script represents an entire syllable.
• It has 8 cases, three numbers, and 3 genders namely-

Cases: Nominative, Accusative, Instrumental, Dative, Ablative, Genitive, Locative, and Vocative.

Numbers: Singular, Dual, and Plural.

Gender: Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter.

• It is known as the ‘Dev Bhasha’ or the language of gods as its pronunciation is very clear and every distinct sound can be distinguished clearly by a listener. 

As the features suggest the language is complex and learning Sanskrit requires time and dedication. The language is undoubtedly amazing and if you find it interesting, you should learn it.

If you want to learn it offline, which provides you the best language immersion, you can visit and stay in India to learn from a Sanskrit University.

In India, many universities provide graduation and post-graduation programs in the Sanskrit language. They also offer certificate courses, diplomas, and research opportunities.

Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Varanasi. Established in 1791, the College is still giving its best services to many locals and foreigners.

Poona Sanskrit College, Pune. Also known as the Deccan College and it was established in 1821.

The Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata. It is also one of the oldest Sanskrit colleges, established in 1824.

The Madras Sanskrit College, Chennai. Situated in South India, the college was established in 1906.

These are some colleges and universities that you can opt for your course. There exist many other universities and colleges all over India.

It may happen that you can not learn the language in one of these colleges as you cannot go to India. The solution to the problem is online learning. Many Indian online institutions are providing basic intermediate and advanced level courses in the  Sanskrit language. They provide sessions with certified trainers and also provide you a certificate of learning. You can also join Multibhashi that can help you with language learning.