FREE Class | Sanskrit Taster Session
Instructor: Dr. Antonia Ruppel
Date: August 6, 2026, 10am-12pm PT
Course Description
Do you know very little about Sanskrit, are you curious about learning more, but unsure whether the study of an ancient literary language is right for you? Then come to our free Sanskrit taster session with Dr. Antonia Ruppel, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit, and lead Sanskrit instructor at Yogic Studies.
Sanskrit is one of the world's great classical languages—the medium of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain ritual and liturgy, the vehicle of an enormous philosophical and scientific literature, and the root of many modern South Asian languages. Some have called it "perfect," "sacred," and "the oldest language"; linguists have studied it to better our understanding of how human languages change and relate to one another. Whether your interest leads you through yoga philosophy, Indian religion, classical literature, or simple curiosity, knowledge of Sanskrit opens countless doors.
In this free session, Dr. Ruppel will introduce the Sanskrit language and the many worlds to which it is of fundamental importance, exploring why it has inspired such devotion and study across cultures and centuries. You will have the chance to ask any questions you have—from the practical ("How long does it take to learn?") to the philosophical ("Why study Sanskrit at all?")—and you will get a first taste of how the language actually works by studying a verse from the Bhagavad Gītā, one of the most widely read Sanskrit texts.
No prior knowledge of Sanskrit or any other classical language is required. All are welcome.
Meeting Details
Thursday, August 6
10:00 am – 12:00 pm PT
The meeting will be fully recorded and will be posted on the website within a day for anyone who registers.
Zoom link will be provided upon registration.
Dr. Antonia Ruppel
Lecturer in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin
Antonia Ruppel is a Classicist by training who came to Sanskrit through a series of fortunate accidents. She learnt the language as an autodidact, and one of her reasons for writing her textbook, The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit (2017), was to make the experience of studying Sanskrit easier and more pleasant for others. In 2021, she published the followup volume, An Introductory Sanskrit Reader: Improving Reading Fluency, designed to help students gain reading fluency in an enjoyable and straightforward way.
Language pedagogy is at the heart of her life. She has been teaching Sanskrit for over 20 years at universities such as Cornell, Oxford and the LMU Munich, as well as offering courses in a variety of formats online.
Listen to our interview with Dr. Ruppel on the Yogic Studies Podcast.
Enrollment is OPEN
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