Sanskrit has been both a subject and object of study in South Asia for at least 3000 years and Sanskrit pedagogy has been a central academic concern since the times of Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (ca. 4^th c. bce). Quite soon after the composition of this monumental text, teachers found themselves needing to create methods that would make Pāṇini’s impenetrable compendium more accessible to students. Some teachers did this by composing even more monumental commentaries, others by reshuffling Pāṇini’s rules, while some traditions did not follow Pāṇini’s system at all and created their own methodologies of Sanskrit teaching. In the colonial era, the introduction of European educational approaches and material collation, as well as the appearance of comparative linguistics, led to yet more major changes in Sanskrit pedagogy – the fruit of the ‘practical’ and ‘easier’ Orientalist curriculum can be seen in classrooms today. In this talk, I will go over some of the ‘innovations’ that Sanskrit teaching went through during its long history, paying special attention to how these changes would have impacted the experiences of both instructors and students. I will also try to map how these innovations impact the way we teach and learn Sanskrit today.

Lidia Wojtczak is Instructional Professor in Sanskrit at the department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago. Her main interest is in the Sanskrit language and its pedagogy — both in its South Asian contexts over time, and in the West. She works on Sanskrit poetry (kāvya), especially messenger poetry (dūtakāvya), and theoretical texts on poetics and aesthetic practices in pre-modern South Asia.

Some of her most recent publications include: “Place, topography and travel: the messenger poem and other genres,” with Shonaleeka Kaul, in: Cambridge History of Indian Literature, eds. F. Orsini & W. Cox., Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming 2026; “Profitable Poetry – Panegyric Messenger Poetry and Patronage” in: The Routledge Companion to Courier Poetry. from South Asia and Beyond, eds. Y. Bronner and D. Shulman, Routledge, Forthcoming 2026; “Building Brahmakṣetra: The Keralan literary landscape in dūtakāvya,” in: Bhūtārthakathane... Sarasvatī. Reading Poetry as a History Book, eds. M. Franceschini, Ch. Livio & L. Wojtczak, Unior Press, Forthcoming 2025.

Sponsored by:South Asia Institute and Department of Asian Studies