An Introduction to

Sanskrit 
Classical Sanskrit is the transcultural, transregional language par excellence for 
the civilizations that have flourished in South Asia. For its beauty and 
complexity, it has been called “the language of the gods.” For nearly three 
millennia, South Asian seers and sovereigns, poets and philosophers, scholars 
and scientists composed texts of astonishing literary beauty and incredible 
logical rigor in Sanskrit. Indeed, to be a South Asian intellectual was to be a 
master of Sanskrit — not merely to be fluent in it, but to understand the rigorous 
linguistic underpinnings of the language (its morphology, syntax, and prosody) 
as well as to absorb the complex theories of aesthetics and hermeneutics that 
govern Sanskrit texts. The study of Sanskrit is therefore absolutely essential for 

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unlocking the profundities and the complexities of the life of the mind and of the 
heart in classical South Asia. It offers many lifetimes’ worth of insight into 
worlds of literature, linguistics, law, ritual, and philosophy — all the more so 
since millions of precious manuscripts remain unstudied and untranslated in the 
original Sanskrit. Studying Sanskrit also provides a powerful foundation for 
studying the modern South Asian languages, most of which bear the deep 
imprint of the language of the gods. It is thus the key not just to South Asia’s 
past, but also to its present and to its future. 
Tamil 
Tamil is spoken by approximately 70 million people worldwide and has one of 
the oldest literary traditions in the world with traceable beginnings to over 2,000 
years ago. It holds official language status in Tamil Nadu in India, Sri Lanka, and 
Singapore, and has a large diaspora. Tamil's literary corpus, rich political and 
social history, and vibrant film industry are just some of the reasons to study this 
fascinating and important language. 
Harvard's Department of South Asian Studies offers Elementary, Intermediate, 
and Advanced Tamil. Classes focus on both the written and spoken forms of the 
language and incorporate a wide range of materials including modern Tamil 
fiction, classical poetry, and contemporary film. 
Tibetan 
The earliest monument of written Tibetan that we have is an inscription on a bell 
that hangs above the entrance of Samye monastery in Central Tibet. It dates from 
the late eighth century. Written Tibetan thus has a history of more than thirteen 
centuries. Its body of literature is as immense as is the area that is occupied by 
peoples who wrote in the language: along the Himalayas from Ladakh, India, 
through Nepal and Bhutan to southwestern China, in what is now the Tibetan 
Autonomous Region, China, and in large portions of the Chinese provinces of 
Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu. In addition, many Mongols also wrote in Tibetan. 
The department offers introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses in both 
spoken and written Tibetan. Courses in written Tibetan cover the entire range of 
subjects Tibetan scholars were interested in, from works on history, biography, 
and Buddhist philosophical and religious texts, to treatises on history, Indo-
Tibetan poetics, astrology, and medicine.