Why Not Teach Yourself Sanskrit In Free Time?

A sincere effort spanning to couple of hours a day, would give one decent familiarity with the Sanskrit language in three months. If one has more time and patience, he / she may achieve more. Many of us have this kind of free time on our hands. Then why not learn Sanskrit sitting at home? We can perhaps then do some reading of few scriptures and treatises, make our own interpretations, and conclude (for ourselves) whether these are worthy or unworthy.

Even if we don't have that kind of free time, perhaps our children do (=it is said that in Israel, children teach their parents Hebrew). Why not encourage them to learn?

Some free resources on the web for learning Sanskrit:

1.)A Practical Sanskrit Introductory - Charles Wikner

http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/

2.)The website of "Acharya", SDL, IIT-Madras:

http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/sanskrit/tutor.php

3.)An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar - Lennart Warnemyr:

http://www.warnemyr.com/skrgram/

4.)A Taiwanese website from the "Museum of Buddhist Studies" to teach yourself Sanskrit:

http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/DBLM/olcourse/sanskrit.htm

5.)Learning resources from the Sanskrit Religions Institute, U.S.A (the site also has links to other sites offering free learning resources) :

http://www.sanskrit.org/www/Sanskrit/sanskrit.htm

6.)Learning resources from Shirali Chitrapur Math's website in PDF format (Chitrapur is a coastal town located near Honnavar, Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka):

http://www.chitrapurmath.net/sanskrit/step-by-step.htm

7.)U.K.-India's online lessons:

http://www.ukindia.com/zip/zsan01.htm

8.)E-books from Sri Satya Sai Veda Pratistan, Puttaparthi:

http://www.vedamu.org/Sankrit/sankritmain.asp

9.)From the website of Dr. Satyavati Sriperumbuduru Kandala:

http://www.kandala.org/ClassMaterial.html

10.)Learning resources from Kalidasa Samskrita Kendram, Kanchipuram (resources include lessons as well as a free dictionary):

http://www.geocities.com/vcgrajan/kendram.html

11.)Shri Aurobindo Ashram's Sanskrit learning resources:

http://sanskrit.sriaurobindoashram.org.in/

12.)A "teach yourself Sanskrit" freeware by the venerable Prof.Sudhir Kaicker:

http://www.sanskrit-lamp.org/

13.)An enthusiastic effort to teach Sanskrit online by Vasudeva Bhat, C.F.T.R.I., Mysore, Karnataka:

http://www.ourkarnataka.com/learnsanskrit/sanskrit_main.htm

14.)Sringeri Mutt's free learning resources:

http://www.svbf.org/sringeri/journal/vol1no1/sanskrit.html

15.)"Master Sanskrit Easily" by by Dr. Narayan Kansara, Ahmedabad:

http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tools

16.) A learning resource put up online by two gentlemen who go by the names, Gabriel 'Pradīpaka' & Andrés 'Muni'.

http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit_sanskrit1/sanscritoargentingles.html

17.)The following website gives several resources for learning Sanskrit. Go to the bottom of the page, where you will find several downloadable lessons in PDF format by Sanskrit Bharati of Bangalore, an organization that has widespread following and which aims to promote spoken Sanskrit.

http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tools/learning_tools.html

18.) Vaman Shivaram Apte's Sanskrit Dictionary online:

http://aa2411s.aa.tufs.ac.jp/%7Etjun/sktdic/

19.) Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, which also contains a Tamil-English Dictionary (Sanskrit-English dictionary part has been adapted from the famous Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'):

http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/

20.)The mother of all Sanskrit resources:

http://www.sanskritdocuments.org/

21.)Geral Huet's Sanskrit Dictionary & other resources:

http://sanskrit.inria.fr/sanskrit.html

It is amazing how people spend their time & money, and battle out to keep this language alive!

I don't intend to detract from the OP's excellent post but for those who have the opportunity in India, why not learn Samskrtam from a good, dedicated teacher? The advantages are that
1. You'll learn faster that way and maintain motivation when you might otherwise give up. Also any doubts that crop up will get resolved faster.

2. You'll financially support through tuition a learned member of your community and keep a system that preserves your culture, its traditions and knowledge going.

3. It will instill in the teacher a sense of pride in imparting the knowledge they possess. If it isn't seen as a thankless job, in the long run there is a better chance of preserving the language.